elicit

present singular third person elicits · participle present eliciting · participle past elicited · past elicited

1. To evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or provoke as a response or answer.

   Shouts of laughter were elicited, smart biddings drawn out, from the whispers of a timid miss, to the stentorian voice of a fox-hunting squire, and not a few fracas from parties either contending for a supposed prize, or disclaiming their chance for it,...

   1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 223–224

   1 more example

   Elizabeth's queenship elicited her subjects' fantasies and fears that she was, as Shakespeare's Cleopatra puts it, “no more but e'en a woman,” and that a woman ruling over men would necessarily subject her entire realm to unbridled feminine sexual desire.

   1994, M. Lindsey Kaplan, Katherine Eggert, ““Good queen, my lord, good queen” - Sexual Slander and the Trials of Female Authority in “The Winter's Tale””, in Renaissance Drama, volume 25, →DOI, page 91 of 89–118

2. transitiveTo draw out, bring out, bring forth (something latent); to obtain information from someone or something.

   Did you elicit a response?

   3 more examples

   Fred wished to elicit the time of the meeting from Jane.

   […] not only did I fail to renew his old feelings towards you, but I could not even succeed in eliciting the reason of his alienation.

   1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order, volume 1 (hardcover), London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., page 9

   He visited three department stores in New York and asked the attendant a question that would elicit the answer fourth floor; for example, he might have asked Excuse me, where are women's shoes?

   2009, William B. McGregor, Linguistics: An Introduction Answer Key

3. To use logic to arrive at truth; to derive by reason.

   Synonyms: deduce, construe

1. not comparableobsoleteElicited; drawn out; made real; open; evident.

   An elicit act of equity.

   1660, Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience in All Her General Measures; […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] James Flesher, for Richard Royston […], →OCLC