stimulant

. [Lat. stimulans, pr. par. of stimulo =to stimulate (q. v.); Fr. stimulant.] A. As adj.: Serving to stimulate; inciting, provocative; spec if., in medicine, producing a quickly diffused and transient increase of vital energy and strength of action in the heart and arteries. "The solution of copper in the nitrous acid is the most acrid and stimulant of any with which we are acquainted." -Falconer. B. As substantive : 1. Ord. Lang.: Anything which stimulates, incites, or provokes; a stimulus, a spur. "The frivolous and di olute who remained required every year stronger and stronger stimulants ." -Macaulay : Hist . Eng ., ch. iii. 2. Pharmacy (pl.): Agents which increase vital action, first in the organ to which they are applied, and next in the system generally. Stimulants are sary's ball, so that the latter, whose turn it is to play, is unable to make the hole without touching the first ball. [STIVY.] "Kirk once more stimied Mac Greg or."- Field , Sept. 4, 1886. sti-mỹ, sti-mie, s . [STIMY, v.] Golf : The position of a ball as described under the verb. IMG:content-0315.png:[blocks in formation] 1. To pierce or wound with a sting, or the sharp pointed organ with which certain animals and plants are furnished; to poison or goad with a sting. 2. Applied improperly to the biting of a serpent of three kinds, stomachic, vascular, and spinal, or the like; to bite. The name is popularly restricted to the first of these, which act upon the stomach, expelling flatulence, besides allaying pain and spasm of the intestines. They are also called carminatives. Examples, ginger, capsicum and chillies, cardamoms, mustard, pepper, nutmeg, . Some vascula stimulants act on the heart and the larger ve els, others on the smaller ones. Of the first are free ammonia, alcohol in the form of brandy or wine, camphor, aromatics, . Of the latter are acetate of ammonia, guiacum, sa afras, . Spinal stimulants increase the function of the spinal cord. Examples, nux vomica, strychnia, cantharides, phosphorus, . ( Garrod .) stim-u-lāte, v . t . & i. [Lat. stimulatus , pa. par. of stimulo to prick forward, to stimulate, from stimulus (for stigmulus )=a goad, from the same root as stick , sting ; Fr. stimuler ; Sp. estimular ; Ital. stimolare .] A. Transitive : 1. To prick, to goad; hence, to rouse, animate, or excite to action or greater exertion by persuasion or some powerful motive; to spur on, to incite, to urge on. "That crisis would have paralysed the faculties of an ordinary captain; it only braced and stimulated those of Luxemburg." -Macaulay : Hist . Eng ., ch. xix. 2. To excite or arouse greater vitality or keenne in; spec if., in medicine, to produce a quickly-diffused and transient increase of vital energy and strength of action in; to excite the organic action of, as any part of the animal economy. B. In trans.: To act as a stimulus; to goad or urge on; to instigate. "Urg'd by the stimulating goad, I drag the cumbrous wagon's load." Gay: To a Poor Man.