Library / English Dictionary

AROUSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stop sleeping

Example:

She woke up to the sound of the alarm clock

Synonyms:

arouse; awake; awaken; come alive; wake; wake up; waken

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

"Arouse" entails doing...:

catch some Z's; kip; log Z's; sleep; slumber (be asleep)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

arousal (awakening from sleep)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to become awake or conscious

Example:

Please wake me at 6 AM.

Synonyms:

arouse; awaken; rouse; wake; wake up; waken

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

reawaken (awaken once again)

bring around; bring back; bring round; bring to (return to consciousness)

call (rouse somebody from sleep with a call)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

arousal (awakening from sleep)

arouser (someone who rouses others from sleep)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to be alert and energetic

Example:

This herbal infusion doesn't stimulate

Synonyms:

arouse; brace; energise; energize; perk up; stimulate

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

affect (act physically on; have an effect upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

cathect (inject with libidinal energy)

animate; quicken; reanimate; recreate; renovate; repair; revive; revivify; vivify (give new life or energy to)

invigorate; reinvigorate (impart vigor, strength, or vitality to)

animate; enliven; invigorate; liven; liven up (make lively)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

Example:

call down the spirits from the mountain

Synonyms:

arouse; bring up; call down; call forth; conjure; conjure up; evoke; invoke; put forward; raise; stir

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

call up; summon (cause to become available for use, either literally or figuratively)

Verb group:

call forth; evoke; kick up; provoke (evoke or provoke to appear or occur)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

anathemise; anathemize; bedamn; beshrew; curse; damn; imprecate; maledict (wish harm upon; invoke evil upon)

bless (give a benediction to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)

Example:

evoke sympathy

Synonyms:

arouse; elicit; enkindle; evoke; fire; kindle; provoke; raise

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

create; make (make or cause to be or to become)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

interest (excite the curiosity of; engage the interest of)

overcome; overpower; overtake; overwhelm; sweep over; whelm (overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli)

bruise; hurt; injure; offend; spite; wound (hurt the feelings of)

shame (cause to be ashamed)

discomfit; discompose; disconcert; untune; upset (cause to lose one's composure)

anger (make angry)

excite (arouse or elicit a feeling)

excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)

fire up; heat; ignite; inflame; stir up; wake (arouse or excite feelings and passions)

prick (to cause a sharp emotional pain)

infatuate (arouse unreasoning love or passion in and cause to behave in an irrational way)

rekindle (arouse again)

draw (elicit responses, such as objections, criticism, applause, etc.)

ask for; invite (increase the likelihood of)

strike a chord; touch a chord (evoke a reaction, response, or emotion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

arousal (the act of arousing)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Stimulate sexually

Example:

This movie usually arouses the male audience

Synonyms:

arouse; excite; sex; turn on; wind up

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

tempt (try to seduce)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to arouse Sue

Sense 7

Meaning:

To begin moving

Example:

As the thunder started the sleeping children began to stir

Synonyms:

arouse; stir

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

Could I but bind him and gag him in his drunken sleep, then a prick or two of my dagger would arouse him to listen to what I had to say to him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This aroused the stranger’s attention, and he asked a multitude of questions concerning the route which the dæmon, as he called him, had pursued.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Anything that is necessary but lacking; the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior.

(Need, NCI Thesaurus)

So the Lion aroused himself and bounded forward as fast as he could go.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A hostile or warlike attitude aroused by a real or supposed wrong.

(Anger, NCI Thesaurus)

The psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior.

(Motivation, NCI Thesaurus)

That aspect of consciousness devoted to affect or feeling; a strong feeling, aroused mental state, or intense state of drive or unrest directed toward a definite object, with physiological, somatic, and behavioral components.

(Emotion, NCI Thesaurus)

A profound state of unconsciousness associated with depressed cerebral activity from which the individual cannot be aroused.

(Coma, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

In the morning Henry was aroused by fervid blasphemy that proceeded from the mouth of Bill.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was not, however, until he sketched the mysteries of the central lake that the full interest and enthusiasm of the audience were aroused.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)