to give life to; make alive: God animated the dust.
2.
to make lively, vivacious, or vigorous; give zest or spirit to: Her presence animated the party.
3.
to fill with courage or boldness; encourage: to animate weary troops.
4.
to move or stir to action; motivate: He was animated by religious zeal.
5.
to give motion to: leaves animated by a breeze.
6.
to prepare or produce as an animated cartoon: to animate a children's story.
–adjective
7.
alive; possessing life: animate creatures.
8.
lively: an animate expression of joy.
9.
of or relating to animal life.
10.
able to move voluntarily.
11.
Linguistics. belonging to a syntactic category or having a semantic feature that is characteristic of words denoting beings regarded as having perception and volition (opposed to inanimate).
[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME animat < L animātus filled with breath or air, quickened, animated (ptp. of animāre). See anima, -ate1]
—Related forms
an·i·mate·ly, adverb
an·i·mate·ness, noun
an·i·mat·ing·ly, adverb
—Synonyms 1. vivify, quicken, vitalize. 2. energize, fortify. Animate,invigorate,stimulate mean to enliven. To animate is to create a liveliness: Health and energy animated his movements. To invigorate means to give physical vigor, to refresh, to exhilarate: Mountain air invigorates. To stimulate is to arouse a latent liveliness on a particular occasion: Alcohol stimulates. 3. inspire, inspirit, hearten, arouse, exhilarate. 4. excite, incite, fire, urge, kindle, prompt.
having life or vigor or spirit; "an animated and expressive face"; "animated conversation"; "became very animated when he heard the good news" [ant: unanimated]
2.
made to appear to move as living creatures do; "an animated cartoon"; "animated puppets"
An"i*mate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Animated; p. pr. & vb. n. Animating.] [L. animatus, p. p. of animare, fr. anima breath, soul; akin to animus soul, mind, Gr. ? wind, Skr. an to breathe, live, Goth. us-anan to expire (us- out), Icel. ["o]nd breath, anda to breathe, OHG. ando anger. Cf. Animal.]1. To give natural life to; to make alive; to quicken; as, the soul animates the body. 2. To give powers to, or to heighten the powers or effect of; as, to animate a lyre. --Dryden. 3. To give spirit or vigor to; to stimulate or incite; to inspirit; to rouse; to enliven. The more to animate the people, he stood on high . . . and cried unto them with a loud voice. --Knolles. Syn: To enliven; inspirit; stimulate; exhilarate; inspire; instigate; rouse; urge; cheer; prompt; incite; quicken; gladden.
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