Also 7 -er. [a. L. stimulātor, f. stimulāre: see STIMULATE v. Cf. F. stimulateur, Sp., Pg. estimulador, It. stimolatore.]
1. gen. One who or something that stimulates.
1614. Jackson, Creed, III. 208, marg. See the stimulator.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., XIX. 694/2. Cantharides are the strongest amongst these stimulaters.
1717. L. Howel, Desiderius, 55. The Indulgence of the Body being too often the great Stimulater of the Soul to vile Practices.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 549. The appetites are the great stimulators of action.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. II. 357. This great stimulator of a vegetable soil.
1890. Ch. Times, 3 Jan., 9/1. A practical administrator and stimulator of work in his great diocese.
2. spec. In the psychological laboratory, an instrument for communicating a stimulus.
1905. E. B. Titchener, Exper. Psychol., II. I. 153. For simple reactions to noise we may use the instrument shown in Fig. 53 [Sound stimulator]. Ibid., 157. Pressure stimulators (areal) for break and make. Ibid., 163. Make and break stimulators for taste.
3. U.S. One addicted to the use of stimulants.
1891. Cycl. Temperance & Prohibition, 621/1. Feeling the approach of a relapse the stimulator then resorts to his old remedy, thus inducing another sham-revival, followed by an increased prostration, and so on.
