actuate

t. [From Ital. attuare; Low Lat. actuo to drive, to impel, from Lat. act us, pa. par. of ago to drive, to move, urge, or impel.] 1. To excite to action, to put in action, to furnish the motive of. (Used of persons, but formerly sometimes of things.) "For, on this occasion, the chief motive which actuated them was not greedine , but the fear of degradation and ruin."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xxiii. *2. To put in action, to produce, to ir vi gorate, to develop. *ăc-tu-āte, a. Actuated. "The active informations of the intellect, filling the pa ive reception of the will, like form closing with matter, grew actuate into a third and distinct perfection of practice."- South .