a. and sb. [a. F. exhilarant, ad. L. exhilarant-em, pr. pple. of exhilarāre to EXHILARATE.]
A. adj. That exhilarates; exhilarating.
1866. Mrs. Whitney, L. Goldthwaite, xii. 294. The exhilarant draught in which they drank the mountain-joy.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., Introd. p. xlix. The breeze … and the tide … impart a healthy and an exhilarant stimulus.
B. sb. An exhilarating medicine.
1803. J. Pilkington, View Derbysh., I. 329. It has been holden in high repute as a cordial and exhilerant [sic].
1839. New Monthly Mag., LVII. 371. The use of this drug [opium] as an exhilarent [sic] is not confined to the poor.
a. 1843. Southey, Doctor (1849), 164. An exhilarant and a cordial which rejoiced and strengthened him.
1868. A. B. Garrod, Mat. Med. (ed. 3), 390. Exhilarants are medicines whose primary effect is to cause an exaltation of the spirits.
