elate

American  

[ih-leyt] / ɪˈleɪt /

verb (used with object)

elated, elating

1. to make very happy or proud.

   news to elate the hearer.

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adjective

1. elated.

elate British  

/ ɪˈleɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to fill with high spirits, exhilaration, pride or optimism

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Other Word Forms

• overelate verb (used with object)
• unelating adjective

Etymology

Origin of elate

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English elat “proud, exalted,” from Latin ēlātus “borne away, lifted up,” past participle of efferre “to bear away, lift up,” from ē- e- ¹ + ferre “to bear, bring, carry”; for the element -lātus, earlier tlātus (unrecorded), thole ² ( def. ), tolerate ( def. )

Example Sentences

And if you can hear a song as irresistible as “Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat” and not feel your soul elate, you may be a stranger to joy.

From New York Times • Jan. 21, 2020

McQueen worked the way a dreaming brain does, transmuting suppressed instinct into images that can trouble, mystify, and elate.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 21, 2016

“One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or lament,” he added.

From New York Times • Jun. 10, 2010

Neither the pursuit of records nor the fact that he is the most successful driver in the 22-year his tory of organized drag racing seems to elate him.

From Time Magazine Archive

First, I smiled to myself and felt elate; but this fierce pleasure subsided in me as fast as did the accelerated throb of my pulses.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Related Words

• exhilarate