actuate
verb/ˈæktʃueɪt/
/ˈæktʃueɪt/
(formal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they actuate | /ˈæktʃueɪt/ /ˈæktʃueɪt/ |
| he / she / it actuates | /ˈæktʃueɪts/ /ˈæktʃueɪts/ |
| past simple actuated | /ˈæktʃueɪtɪd/ /ˈæktʃueɪtɪd/ |
| past participle actuated | /ˈæktʃueɪtɪd/ /ˈæktʃueɪtɪd/ |
| -ing form actuating | /ˈæktʃueɪtɪŋ/ /ˈæktʃueɪtɪŋ/ |
- actuate something to make a machine or device start to work synonym activate
- The timer must have been actuated by radio control.
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- [usually passive] to make somebody behave in a particular way synonym motivate
- be actuated by something He was actuated entirely by malice.
Word Originlate 16th cent.: from medieval Latin actuat- ‘carried out, caused to operate’, from the verb actuare, from Latin actus ‘event, thing done’, act- ‘done’, from the verb agere, reinforced by the French noun acte. The original sense was ‘carry out in practice’, later ‘stir into activity, enliven’; sense (1) dates from the mid 17th cent.
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