WordWeb Online

1. (linguistics) belonging to the class of nouns that denote living beings
   "the word 'dog' is animate"
    
2. Endowed with animal life as distinguished from plant life
   "we are animate beings"
    
3. Endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness
   "the living knew themselves just animate puppets on God's stage";
   - sentient

1. Heighten or intensify
   "These paintings animate the imagination";
   - inspire, invigorate, enliven, exalt
    
2. Give lifelike qualities to
   "animated cartoons";
   - animize, animise [Brit]
    
3. Make lively
   - enliven, liven, liven up, invigorate
    
4. Give new life or energy to
   "A hot soup will animate me";
   - recreate, reanimate, revive, renovate, repair, quicken, vivify, revivify

Derived forms: animating, animates, animated

See also: aliveness, animateness, liveness, sensate, sentience

Type of: alter, arouse, brace, change, energise [Brit], energize, excite, modify, perk up, shake, shake up, stimulate, stir

Antonym: inanimate, non-living

Encyclopedia: Animate