ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ING2.] That exhilarates; cheering, enlivening, inspiriting.

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1643.  Milton, Divorce, II. ix. (1851), 87. Marriage … was especially giv’n as a cordiall and exhilarating cup of solace.

2

1708.  J. Philips, Cyder, II. 66. A Continual Tide Flows from th’ exhilerating Fount.

3

1779–81.  Johnson, L. P., Denham. Nothing is less exhilarating than the ludicrousness of Denham.

4

1845.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., iv. (1876), 76. We … started for another exhilarating gallop.

5

1865.  Livingstone, Zambesi, xxv. 519. The air which was so exhilarating to Europeans.

6

  Hence Exhilaratingly adv.

7

1850.  in Ogilvie.

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