EXHILARATING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does exhilarating mean? 

• EXHILARATING (adjective)
  The adjective EXHILARATING has 2 senses:

1. making lively and cheerful

2. making lively and joyful

  Familiarity information: EXHILARATING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXHILARATING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Making lively and cheerful

Synonyms:

exhilarating; stimulating

Context example:

the exhilarating effect of mountain air

Similar:

invigorating (imparting strength and vitality)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Making lively and joyful

Synonyms:

elating; exhilarating

Similar:

exciting (creating or arousing excitement)

 Context examples 

This was a blessing, bright, vivid, and exhilarating;—not like the ponderous gift of gold: rich and welcome enough in its way, but sobering from its weight.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Then he seemed quite inspired, though the burial customs of the ancients, to which the conversation had strayed, might not be considered an exhilarating topic.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

To throw one’s whole strength and weight on the oars and to feel the boat checked in its forward lunge by the heavy drag behind, was not exactly exhilarating.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man’s energy.

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

Five years after Jo's wedding, one of these fruitful festivals occurred, a mellow October day, when the air was full of an exhilarating freshness which made the spirits rise and the blood dance healthily in the veins.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)