arouse

verb

\ə-ˈrau̇z

aroused; arousing

Definition of arouse

1 : to awaken from sleep was aroused from a deep sleep by a loud noise

2 : to stimulate to action or to bodily readiness for activity : excite a book that has aroused debate

3 : to excite (someone) sexually : to cause sexual arousal in (someone) … girls whose perfume scent frightened him and aroused him.— Elizabeth Berg

intransitive verb

: to awake from sleep : stir

Other Words from arouse Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about arouse

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Synonyms & Antonyms for arouse

Synonyms

awake, awaken, knock up [British], rouse, wake, waken

Antonyms

lull

Examples of arouse in a Sentence

The report aroused a great deal of public interest. The husky sound of her voice could always arouse him. Their proposal is certain to arouse the opposition.

Recent Examples on the Web

And Mitchell herself avoided using the kind of disrespectful language that aroused outrage among many women watching the Hill hearings. — Anna North, Vox, "The Republicans on the committee attempted to change the optics for this hearing, but don’t be fooled.," 27 Sep. 2018 Danske is perhaps the most surprising case yet: Huge flows passing through a tiny foreign branch, where many of the clients were not even residents, failed to arouse suspicions higher up. — Paul J. Davies, WSJ, "Banks Are Getting Squeezed by the Fight Against Dirty Money," 5 Oct. 2018 Intel’s manufacturing monotony is starting to arouse attention on Wall Street. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "Intel's Whiskey Lake notebook chip launches, emphasizing connectivity this time around," 28 Aug. 2018 Wooing, connecting, arousing and even cuckoldry is virtual. — Laren Stover, New York Times, "The Selfie That Dares to Go There," 7 July 2018 Legislators could satisfy unions by promising benefits sometime in the future, long after the next election cycle — without arousing any opposition. — Daniel Disalvo, Washington Post, "How today’s big Supreme Court case on public-sector unions could lead to a fiscal crisis," 26 Feb. 2018 Bottlenecks at Tesla's battery factory and assembly plant have undermined that effort, limiting the return on that investment and arousing concern that the company may need to raise more cash. — Bloomberg, latimes.com, "Tesla recalls early Model S cars to retrofit power-steering part," 29 Mar. 2018 The final result was a textured pixie that got gradually shorter in the public eye, without arousing suspicion. — Chloe Metzger, Marie Claire, "Princess Diana Only Cut Her Hair 1/4 Inch at a Time so Fans Wouldn’t Notice," 15 June 2018 It has been found, for instance, that blue-green-yellow type colors tend to be particularly arousing. — Joe Peterburger, National Geographic, "Why the Brain-Body Connection Is More Important Than We Think," 17 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'arouse.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.