stimulate Hear it!

stimulate Definition

stimu·late (--lāt′)

transitive verb -·lat′ed, -·lat′·ing

  1. to rouse or excite to action or increased action; animate; spur on
  2. to invigorate or seem to invigorate, as by an alcoholic drink
  3. Med., Physiol. to excite (an organ, part, etc.) to activity or increased activity

Etymology: < L stimulatus, pp. of stimulare, to prick, goad, excite < stimulus: see stimulus

intransitive verb

to act as a stimulant or stimulus

stimulate Related Forms
stimu·lat′er noun or stimu·la′·tor stim′u·la·tion noun stimu·la′·tive adjective, noun
stimulate Synonyms

stimulate

v.

arouse, excite, spur, incite; see animate 1, excite 1, incite. See syn. study at animate, provoke.

stimulate Usage Examples

Object

  • debate: At the design festival, the sculptures stimulated debate about how to improve the site.
  • discussion: Each small group could feed back to the whole, stimulating discussion.
  • circulation: Sauna and Steam Room Sauna and steam bathing stimulates blood circulation and relaxes the muscles.
  • imagination: Words don't simply stimulate the imagination - they require it.
  • appetite: High calorie, high energy Vitamin concentrate, Palatable dietary supplement helps stimulate appetite, increases weight gain.
  • creativity: IDEO's methods of working are designed to stimulate creativity.

Adjective complement

  • new: While in other applications, it is being used for the first time to create and stimulate new, exciting markets.

Modifying Another Word

  • intellectually: Sleeping Crying Physical activity, games, intellectually stimulating play, etc, .
  • electrically: Electrically stimulated bone healing is usually used only in severe breaks and spinal injuries, where the body has difficulty healing itself.
  • optically: The method optically stimulated luminescence ( OSL ) is a way of establishing the age of soil sediments.
  • artificially: The policy of artificially stimulating investment is also too reminiscent of postwar conventional wisdom.
  • mentally: It is a general tonic and invigorating to the physique, as well as mentally stimulating.
  • visually: The Year One CD-Rom provides an exciting and visually stimulating way to teach handwriting to the whole class using an interactive whiteboard.

Used with why or when

  • when: Furthermore, knowledge acquisition and information gathering activity will be stimulated when progress becomes difficult.

Infinitive complement

  • produce: Pollen tube When a pollen grain lands on the stigma of a flower, it is stimulated to produce a pollen tube.
  • develop: Of the 71 eggs obtained, 22 eggs were chemically stimulated to develop parthenogenetically, and 19 were used for nuclear transplant cloning.
  • do: Hopefully they will be stimulated to do so, but ultimately it is their personal choice.

Present participle complement

  • learn: Senior School The Senior School provides a lively, stimulating learning environment.
  • think: Written by experts, they will stimulate thinking about what current trends mean for practitioners and their organizations ' activities.

Preposition: for

  • child: It was felt this would be potentially stimulating for children to build bottom-up composite behaviors and games in Open Logo.

Browse dictionary entries near stimulate

  1. stimulant
  2. Stimson
  3. Stilton (cheese)
  4. stilted
  5. stilt
  6. stilly
  7. Stillson wrench
  8. stillness
  9. stillborn
  10. stillbirth
  1. stimulated
  2. stimulating
  3. stimulus
  4. stimy
  5. sting
  6. stingaree
  7. stinger
  8. stinging hair
  9. stingray
  10. stingy