excitation

plural excitations

1. countableuncountableThe act of exciting or putting in motion; the act of rousing up or awakening.

   Wheelslip automatically causes the main generator field excitation to be reduced; the load regulator is forced back to minimum excitation and, if operating in one of the two stages of traction motor field divert, causes reversion to full field.

   1962 December, “The Oxted Line diesel-electric multiple-units”, in Modern Railways, page 385

   1 more example

   Generator excitation is obtained by a combination of the separately-excited and self-excited fields, and the output is controlled by a resistance in the separate field circuit adjusted by the load regulator under the control of the engine governor.

   1961 October, “The first 1,250 h.p. Birmingham/Sulzer Type 2 diesels enter service”, in Trains Illustrated, page 607

2. countableuncountableThe act of producing excitement (stimulation); also, the excitement produced.

   I'm pickin' up good vibrations / She's giving me the excitations.

   1966, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, “Good Vibrations”, performed by The Beach Boys

   3 more examples

   Baiae: An ancient Roman pleasure resort [...]. It was the focal point of all kinds fo erotic experiments, unbridled debauchery, amorous intrigues and excitations, sexual encounters and aberrations.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 39

   These women are experts at flattery, cajolery and sexual excitation, and also possess unusual talents for stirring up quarrels, stimulating jealousies and spreading slander and malicious rumors.

   1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 79

   The erotics of composition are essential to the process, some prereflective excitation and orientation, some sense that your own little verse-craft can dock safe and sound at the big quay of language.

   1999, Seamus Heaney, “Introduction”, in Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page xxvi

3. countableuncountablemedicineThe activity produced in an organ, tissue, or part, such as a nerve cell, as a result of stimulation.
4. countableuncountablenatural sciencesA transition of a nucleus, atom or molecule to an excited state by the absorption of a quantum of energy; the opposite of relaxation.