Excited

ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED¹.]

  1.  Stirred by strong emotion, disturbed, agitated.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 275. The population of Edinburgh was in an excited state.

1864.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 216. The excited people … rushed out to me.

1879.  McCarthy, Own Times, I. 199. Thiers carried with him much of the excited public feeling of France.

  b.  Of trade: Abnormally brisk or active.

1878.  Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 123. Business men must become … careful during excited trade.

  2.  a. Electricity and Magnetism. In which electrical or magnetic action has been induced; electrized, magnetized. b. Of bodily organs or tissues: Affected by a stimulus. c. Of a seismographic instrument: Agitated.

1660.  Boyle, Seraph. Love, 144. Excited Needles, when they stick fastest to each other, owe their Union to their having both been touched by the Loadstone.

1812.  Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 129. The different states may be known by presenting a metallic point to the excited body.

1831.  Brewster, Newton (1855), I. x. 235. The visible direction of an object should be a line perpendicular to the curvature of the retina at the excited point.

1863.  Tyndall, Heat, ii. § 35 (1870), 37. The excited magnetic field.

1881.  Standard, 11 Aug, 5/8. The instruments become less excited, and gradually fall back to more normal conditions.