[ad. L. animāt-us filled with life, also, disposed, inclined, f. animā-re to breathe, to quicken; f. anima air, breath, life, soul, mind.]
A. pple. and adj.
† 1. pple. Animated, inspired. Obs.
a. 1546. Elyot, Lett., in Governour (1836), 289. I am animate to importune your good lordship with most hearty desires.
1640. Canterbur. Self-Conv., Pref. 11. That … your Honours [may be] the more animate to deny your power.
2. adj. Endowed with life, living, alive.
1605. Timme, Quersit., II. i. 102. Phylosophers … have affirmed the magnet or loadstone to be animate.
1610. Healey, St. Aug., City of God, VIII. xxiii. (1620), 312. Statues, quoth he? Doe you not see them animate?
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 580. Corruption of Bodies Inanimat and Animat.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. i. 34. Some of the Ancients … have … thought that the World was Animate.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., In mechanics, animate power is used to denote a man, or brute.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol. (1875), I. I. ix. 147. The former history of the animate world.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes (1846), 5. That men should have worshipped … stocks and stones, and all manner of animate and inanimate objects.
3. Lively, having the full activity of life.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, vi. iii. Wks. IV. 220. A courser More animate of eye, Of form more faultless never had he seen.
1833. I. Taylor, Fanat., iii. 59. The enthusiasm of the very meanest member of a warrior-clan is tenfold more animate.
4. Pertaining to what is endowed with life; connected with animals.
1828. Kirby & Spence, Entomol., I. iv. 94. Both animate diseases, but derived from two distinct species of animals.
† B. sb. That which has life, a living thing. Obs.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, III. xxviii. Magnetick might doth so combine Earth, Water, Air, into one animate.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. I. i. 5. The animate serves the animal.
