adrenalize

American  

[uh-dreen-l-ahyz] / əˈdrin lˌaɪz /

especially British, adrenalise

verb (used with object)

adrenalized, adrenalizing

1. to stir to action; excite.

   The promise of victory adrenalized the team.

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Etymology

Origin of adrenalize

adrenal(ine) + -ize

Explanation

To adrenalize is to stimulate, excite, or energize someone or something. If something adrenalizes you, it can trigger a surge of excitement or a "fight-or-flight" response, making you feel especially alert and focused. The word adrenalize is a back-formation of the word adrenaline, the hormone produced by the adrenal gland in response to stress. So literally, the word can mean "to flood the system with adrenaline." But this relatively new addition to English is most often used figuratively in literature, sports, and entertainment. A movie director might adrenalize a car chase by adding a pulsating soundtrack to the scene. A cheering crowd might be said to adrenalize the athletes on the field. A panicked shout might adrenalize people in a crowded space.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

adrenalize adrenalized adrenalizing

But to answer your question about what we do for adrenalize, I like balloons, magic, glitter, and unicorns with my kids.

From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2021

Then there was the tone and pacing of the movie — frantic, jagged, adrenalized.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2025

"I knew it had gone wrong a second or two before it did and I knew what was about to happen and I didn't have any kind of a adrenalized response," he said.

From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2023

The kind of adrenalized, physics-defying mojo that turned Bay's past films like "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor" into zeitgeist-y hits don't always work these days.

From Reuters ● Apr. 10, 2022

“Velvet Was the Night,” her riveting new noir, is an adrenalized, darkly romantic journey set during Mexico’s Dirty War.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 14, 2021

An adrenalized people one would, expect to be the first to take advantage of possibilities because of their energy capacity.

From The Glands Regulating Personality by Berman, Louis, M.D.

Cronin’s exceptionally ambitious visuals keep the proceedings interesting, creating a sense of adrenalizing, off-kilter unpredictability to match what his dwindling number of humans are experiencing as they inevitably fall to the Deadite swarm.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2023

There’s something adrenalizing about works made under creative constraints: haikus, black-and-white photography, Brompton bikes and Georges Perec’s lipogrammatic novels.

From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2022