AROUSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does arouse mean? 

• AROUSE (verb)
  The verb AROUSE has 7 senses:

1. call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)

2. stop sleeping

3. summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

4. cause to be alert and energetic

5. cause to become awake or conscious

6. to begin moving

7. stimulate sexually

  Familiarity information: AROUSE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AROUSE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they arouse    ... he / she / it arouses   
Past simple: aroused   
Past participle: aroused   
-ing form: arousing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

arouse; elicit; enkindle; evoke; fire; kindle; provoke; raise

Context example:

evoke sympathy

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

create; make (make or cause to be or to become)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

rekindle (arouse again)

interest (excite the curiosity of; engage the interest of)

overcome; overpower; overtake; overwhelm; sweep over; whelm (overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli)

bruise; hurt; injure; offend; spite; wound (hurt the feelings of)

shame (cause to be ashamed)

discomfit; discompose; disconcert; untune; upset (cause to lose one's composure)

anger (make angry)

excite (arouse or elicit a feeling)

excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)

fire up; heat; ignite; inflame; stir up; wake (arouse or excite feelings and passions)

prick (to cause a sharp emotional pain)

infatuate (arouse unreasoning love or passion in and cause to behave in an irrational way)

draw (elicit responses, such as objections, criticism, applause, etc.)

ask for; invite (increase the likelihood of)

strike a chord; touch a chord (evoke a reaction, response, or emotion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

arousal (the act of arousing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Stop sleeping

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

arouse; awake; awaken; come alive; wake; wake up; waken

Context example:

She woke up to the sound of the alarm clock

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

"Arouse" entails doing...:

catch some Z's; kip; log Z's; sleep; slumber (be asleep)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

arousal (awakening from sleep)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

arouse; bring up; call down; call forth; conjure; conjure up; evoke; invoke; put forward; raise; stir

Context example:

call down the spirits from the mountain

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

call up; summon (cause to become available for use, either literally or figuratively)

Verb group:

call forth; evoke; kick up; provoke (evoke or provoke to appear or occur)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

bless (give a benediction to)

anathemise; anathemize; bedamn; beshrew; curse; damn; imprecate; maledict (wish harm upon; invoke evil upon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Cause to be alert and energetic

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

arouse; brace; energise; energize; perk up; stimulate

Context example:

This herbal infusion doesn't stimulate

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

affect (act physically on; have an effect upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

cathect (inject with libidinal energy)

animate; quicken; reanimate; recreate; renovate; repair; revive; revivify; vivify (give new life or energy to)

invigorate; reinvigorate (impart vigor, strength, or vitality to)

animate; enliven; invigorate; liven; liven up (make lively)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Cause to become awake or conscious

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

arouse; awaken; rouse; wake; wake up; waken

Context example:

Please wake me at 6 AM.

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

bring around; bring back; bring round; bring to (return to consciousness)

call (rouse somebody from sleep with a call)

reawaken (awaken once again)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

arousal (awakening from sleep)

arouser (someone who rouses others from sleep)

Sense 6

Meaning:

To begin moving

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

arouse; stir

Context example:

As the thunder started the sleeping children began to stir

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 7

Meaning:

Stimulate sexually

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

arouse; excite; sex; turn on; wind up

Context example:

This movie usually arouses the male audience

Hypernyms (to "arouse" is one way to...):

excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "arouse"):

tempt (try to seduce)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to arouse Sue

 Context examples 

I was instantly aroused, and, with the two footmen, started off at once in search of the missing girl.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Pity, too, was aroused, and innocent, idealistic thoughts of reform.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

How could I search for it without the French police having their suspicions aroused?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Always she aroused with a start, snatching up the gun and swiftly looking at him.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

On this night, sleeping under my beloved shears, I was aroused by his footsteps on the deck.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

At length, however, the remarks of her companions on her absence of mind aroused her, and she felt the necessity of appearing more like herself.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But now all my professional instincts were aroused.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Arouse all together, mes enfants, under pain of my displeasure.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)