activate
to make active; cause to function or act.
Physics.
to render more reactive; excite: to activate a molecule.
to induce radioactivity.
to aerate (sewage) in order to accelerate decomposition of impure organic matter by microorganisms.
Chemistry.
to make (carbon, a catalyst, molecules, etc.) more active.
to hasten (reactions) by various means, as heating.
to place (a military unit or station) on an active status in an assigned capacity.
to become active or functional.
Origin of activate
1Other words for activate
| 1 | actuate, start, turn on, set going |
Opposites for activate
Other words from activate
- ac·ti·va·tion [ak-tuh-vey-shuhn], /ˌæk təˈveɪ ʃən/, noun
- non·ac·ti·va·tion, noun
- o·ver·ac·ti·vate, verb (used with object), o·ver·ac·ti·vat·ed, o·ver·ac·ti·vat·ing.
- su·per·ac·ti·vate, verb (used with object), su·per·ac·ti·vat·ed, su·per·ac·ti·vat·ing.
- un·ac·ti·vat·ed, adjective
Words that may be confused with activate
Words Nearby activate
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use activate in a sentence
According to Heather Nenov, an ophthalmologist from Stein Optometric Center, light entering the eye at a consistent brightness activates photoreceptors at the back of the eye.
Depending on trim level, there are massaging seats, power-adjustable pedals, motion-activated liftgate and captain’s chairs instead of a bench seat in the second row.
In real time, they looked at how neurons in the hippocampus activated in response to fear, and found that they tend to transmit the information to the amygdala—the emotion center—more than average.
Towards ‘Eternal Sunshine’? New Links Found Between Memory and Emotion | Shelly Fan | July 28, 2020 | Singularity HubBy better understanding the blood messengers involved, we could artificially activate this pathway and potentially protect the mental essence of what makes you you—even as your brain falters with age or disease.
Couch Potato No More: How the Benefits of Exercise Transfer to the Brain | Shelly Fan | July 14, 2020 | Singularity HubIn mice with light-sensitive neurons, the team activated multiple glomeruli with a specific pattern, which generated a hallucinatory sense of a particular scent—even if it wasn’t there and didn’t exist in nature.
A Highway to Smell: How Scientists Used Light to Incept Smell in Mice | Shelly Fan | July 1, 2020 | Singularity Hub
I read a study not long ago that chewing actually does activate your brain.
What would be in store for Lebanon if—or when—the cells activate was suggested by recent events.
The manager responded by directing the first teller to call the police and activate the alarm.
Perry will home in on the darkest corners of the Tea Party mind and work relentlessly to activate the demons that lurk there.
He warned her that if she provided details of either him or their conversation, he would activate the explosive.
A source of neutrons to activate the material and a gamma-ray spectrometer to measure the radiation from the material afterwards.
The Atomic Fingerprint | Bernard KeischA neutron moderator slows down the neutrons and thus makes them more likely to activate the calcium in the bones.
The Atomic Fingerprint | Bernard KeischWhen she was finished Rynason nodded for her to activate the linkage.
Warlord of Kor | Terry Gene Carractivate the switch with the eraser-end of a pencil or small tool of similar size.
And so they might—if we had an unlimited supply of raw materials to produce robots, and unlimited power-sources to activate them.
This Crowded Earth | Robert Bloch
British Dictionary definitions for activate
/ (ˈæktɪˌveɪt) /
to make active or capable of action
physics to make radioactive
chem
to increase the rate of (a reaction)
to treat (a substance, such as carbon or alumina) so as to increase powers of adsorption
physiol to prepare by arousal (the body or one of its organs (e.g. the brain)) for action
to purify (sewage) by aeration
US military to create, mobilize, or organize (a unit)
Derived forms of activate
- activation, noun
- activator, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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