exanimate
Americanadjective
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inanimate or lifeless.
-
spiritless; disheartened.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- exanimation noun
Etymology
Origin of exanimate
1525–35; < Latin exanimātus (past participle of exanimāre to deprive of life), equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + anim ( a ) life, spirit + -ātus -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
All along the wan stretch of Cheyne Walk the thin trees stood exanimate, with not a breath of wind to stir the snow that pied their soot-blackened branches.
From A Christmas Garland by Beerbohm, Max, Sir
When Laura plays the piano, her adorer stands there, one moment an exanimate statue, the next a disembodied spirit,—while the listening zephyrs murmur more softly in reverence.
From The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller by Thomas, Calvin
In the afternoon the mother and her eldest and youngest, supine and exanimate in the drawing-room, were surprised into expectancy by the sound of the front-door bell before three o'clock.
From Leonora by Bennett, Arnold
It looked exanimate enough, with its idle wheel looming above the black stream dashed with yellow-white spume, and its cluster of sheds sagging under their white load.
From Ethan Frome by Wharton, Edith
He gazed at an exanimate Louis, made a few inquiries and a few observations of his own, gave some brief instructions, and departed.
From The Price of Love by Bennett, Arnold
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
