adjective
- full of life, action, or spirit; lively; vigorous: an animated debate on the death penalty.
- made or equipped to move or give the appearance of moving in an animallike fashion: animated puppets.
- containing representations of animals or mechanical objects that appear to move as real ones do: an animated window display.
verb (used with object), an·i·mat·ed, an·i·mat·ing.
- to give life to; make alive: God animated the dust.
- to make lively, vivacious, or vigorous; give zest or spirit to: Her presence animated the party.
- to fill with courage or boldness; encourage: to animate weary troops.
- to move or stir to action; motivate: He was animated by religious zeal.
- to give motion to: leaves animated by a breeze.
- to render or produce (a story, character, movie, etc.) by using animation: to animate a children’s story;to animate the characters in a video game;an animated film.
adjective
- alive; possessing life: animate creatures.
- lively: an animate expression of joy.
- of or relating to animal life.
- able to move voluntarily.
- Linguistics. belonging to a syntactic category or having a semantic feature that is characteristic of words denoting beings regarded as having perception and volition (opposed to inanimate).
adjective
- full of vivacity and spirit; lively
- characterized by movement and activityan animated scene met her eye
- possessing life; animate
- moving or appearing to move as if alivean animated display
- pertaining to cinematographic animation
verb (ˈænɪˌmeɪt) (tr)
- to give life to or cause to come alive
- to make lively; enliven
- to encourage or inspire
- to impart motion to; move to action or work
- to record on film or video tape so as to give movement toan animated cartoon
adjective (ˈænɪmɪt)
- being alive or having life
- gay, spirited, or lively
1530s, “alive,” past participle adjective from animate (v.). Meaning “mentally excited” is from 1530s; “full of activity” from 1580s. The “moving pictures” sense is attested from 1895; of cartoons from 1897. Related: Animatedly.
1530s, “to fill with boldness or courage,” from Latin animatus past participle of animare “give breath to,” also “to endow with a particular spirit, to give courage to,” from anima “life, breath” (see animus). Sense of “give life to” in English attested from 1742. Related: Animated; animating.
“alive,” late 14c., from Latin animatus (see animate (v.)).