v. Also 4–5 exite, 4–6 excyte, 5 excit, exyte. [a. Fr. exciter (= Pr. and Sp. excitar), ad. L. excitāre, freq. of exciēre to set in motion, awaken, call forth, instigate, f. ex- out + ciēre to set in motion.]
1. trans. To set in motion, stir up.
a. fig. To move, stir up, instigate, incite. Const. † til, to, unto; to with inf. or that (with subord. clause); also simply. Now only with mixed notion of 5.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Prol. Þe sange of psalmes … excites aungels til oure help. Ibid., ix. 25. Antecrist sall … excite him [God] in his synn to punysch him.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxiii. (1495), 131. Oxen ben excited to traueile more by the swete songe of the heerd than by strokes and pryckes.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., I. v. 12. Gwentolena … excyted her Fader and frendes to make warre vpon the sayd Lotryne.
a. 1575. Abp. Parker, in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), I. 2. Of Sabbath day the solemn feast Doth vs excyte by rest, God’s mighty workes that we declare.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 185/1. Exciting the Soul of the World, and converting it to himself.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus., 135. Excite those People to use a little more fervour in their prayers.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., v. (1738), 118. We excite children by praising them.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. iv. 129. That veteran intriguer … excited his attendants to resist.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., II. 54. He was sent as legate to Spain to try to excite the emperor to a crusade against his country.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt., II. iii. (1874), 254. The imagination is apt to be still more excited by the stirring incidents of war.
absol. c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 516. Þe kyng may take awey þes temporaltees from prelatis, whan laweful cause exitiþ.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. ii. 3. Whose prayse I would endyte … as dewtie doth excyte.
1683. Soame & Dryden, Art of Poetry, ii. 9. There native beauty pleases and excites.
† b. To provoke, challenge. Obs.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter v. 12. Out pute þaim: for þai excitid þe lord.
1388. Wyclif, Judith xiv. 12. Myis ben goon out of her caues, and doren excite us to batel.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 40. Of Fyerabras how he came to excyte thexersyte of Charles.
† c. In physical sense: To set in motion, stir up (so L. excitare harenam, Sallust.) Obs. rare–1.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 362/107. He snuffs the Wind, his heels the Sand excite.
2. To rouse, awaken.
† a. lit. To rouse from unconsciousness. rare.
c. 1440. Love, Bonavent. Mirr., xlv. (Sherard MS.), 101. Than was our lady excited and roos as it hadde ben fro sleep.
† b. To call up (a departed spirit). Obs. rare.
1651. Walton, in Reliq. Wotton. (1672), 208. Unless … we could … excite them again, and confer a while with their naked Ghosts.
c. To call forth or quicken (a faculty, feeling, etc.) from potential into actual existence; to rouse up, awaken (what is dormant, sluggish or latent).
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 18. Venus … Hath yive him drinke … Of thilke cuppe., whiche exciteth The lust.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys, Introd. (Roxb.), 4. The fyrst cause is for to excyte Menys affeccyoun.
1641. Wilkins, Math. Magick, I. i. (1648), 3. Such mysticall expressions, as might excite the peoples wonder.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 98/125. With Shouts, the Cowards Courage they excite.
1699. Bentley, Phal., xi. 304. ’Tis the design of Tragedy to excite Compassion in the Auditory.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 242. The Fire in Lime burnt … lies hid … but Water excites it again.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., iii. (1738), 55. A master may, by the exercises he sets, excite the superior capacity of his scholar.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom. (ed. 4), I. iii. 73. Who can describe the detestation it excites?
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 495. The characters excite little or no interest.
3. To induce, elicit, provoke (actions, manifestations); to bring about, occasion (active conditions).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. lxvii. (1495), 285. It is a generall medycyne to excyte spewynge.
c. 1400. Three Kings Cologne (1886), 122. Þe deuyll … excited … among þe pepil diuers opynyouns of heresy.
1576. Newton, trans. Lemnie’s Complex. (1633), 104. It is expedient to excite and cherish native heat with exercise.
1612. Enchirid. Med., 111. Through a catarrhall distillation the cough is excited.
1704. Penn, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 341. Excite his return, or to send for his family to him.
1786. W. Gilpin, Mts. & Lakes Cumbrld., II. 60, note. Brass guns, for the purpose of exciting ecchoes.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 73. Heat … excites and promotes a motion in the fluids.
1797. Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. VIII. 303. They [the English ministry] did not excite the general confederacy in Europe.
1803. Phil. Trans., XCIII. 84. The bar … was melted in the strongest heat which could be excited.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), II. vii. 176. [He] had … endeavoured to excite an insurrection in the eastern counties.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. v. 192. Fire-ships, intended only to excite a conflagration of the bridge.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, I. 142. It may excite a smile when I say so.
4. To affect by a stimulus (bodily organs or tissues), so as to produce or intensify their characteristic activity.
1831. Brewster, Nat. Magic, iii. 37. We observe it [the retina] to be so excited by local pressures … as to see in total darkness moving and shapeless masses of coloured light.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., I. ii. § 18 (1864), 51. Irritation or contact with a surface excites a single group of muscles in one way.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., i. 4. Changes which take place within the cells of the tentacles when the glands are excited.
5. In modern use: To move to strong emotion, stir to passion; to stir up to eager tumultuous feeling, whether pleasurable or painful.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lxi. (1879), 601. All the events of life, however strongly they may move or eagerly excite him never can remove that sainted image from his heart.
1855–79. [see EXCITED ppl. a. 1].
1886. Leslie Stephen, Life H. Fawcett, viii. 352. The only result of his endeavours to bring it before the House had been to excite the Under-Secretary for India.
1891. Punch, CI. 121/2. ‘It excites me—it amuses me to talk to a cocher.’
6. a. Electricity and Magnetism. To induce electric or magnetic activity in (a substance); to set (an electric current) in motion; also absol. b. Photography. To render (a plate, etc.) sensitive to light; to sensitize.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. ii. 60–1. For if an iron or steele not formerly excited, be held perpendicularly or inclinatorily unto the needle, the lower end thereof will attract the cuspis or southerne point.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., xxiv. 631. Excite a glass rod by silk.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., 157. The magnets … are used merely to excite in the manner already explained. Ibid., 277. The remarkable fact of magnets exciting electric currents in wires moved near them.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 270. For exciting the collodion film a bath should be mixed. J. C. Leake, ibid. IV. 323/2. When excited the plate should be placed in the dark-slide.
