actuate

present singular third person actuates · participle present actuating · participle past actuated · past actuated

1. transitiveTo activate, or to put into motion; to animate.

   Wings, which others were contriving to actuate by the perpetual motion.

   November 6, 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 67

   1 more example

   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.

   1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1907, →OCLC, pages 68–69

   Synonyms: get going, set in motion, set off, trigger

2. transitiveTo 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.

   1 more example

   Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition; and, on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the least actuated by it.

   1712 January 1 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, December 22, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 255; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

   Synonyms: instigate, provoke, abet, goose, fuel, light a fire under, send, sting