actuate
Pronunciation Verb
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Pronunciation Verb
actuate (actuates, present participle actuating; past and past participle actuated)
- (transitive) To activate, or to put into motion; to animate.
- Wings, which others were contriving to actuate by the perpetual motion.
- 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907, OCLC 270548466 ↗; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, OCLC 1107573959 ↗, pages 68–69 ↗:
- I walk always with my right hand closed round the india-rubber ball which I have in my trouser pocket. The pressing of this ball actuates a detonator inside the flask I carry in my pocket. It's the principle of the pneumatic instantaneous shutter for a camera lens.
- (transitive) To incite to action; to motivate.
- 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, 2. ed., London, Oxford University Press, 1973. § 11.
- A man in a fit of anger, is actuated in a very different manner from one who only thinks of that emotion.
- Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition; and, on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the least actuated by it.
- 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, 2. ed., London, Oxford University Press, 1973. § 11.
- Russian: приводи́ть в де́йствие
- Portuguese: estimular
- Russian: побужда́ть к действие
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004