Stimulus
['stɪmjʊləs] or ['stɪmjələs]
Definition
(v. t.) A goad; hence, something that rouses the mind or spirits; an incentive; as, the hope of gain is a powerful stimulus to labor and action.
(v. t.) That which excites or produces a temporary increase of vital action, either in the whole organism or in any of its parts; especially (Physiol.), any substance or agent capable of evoking the activity of a nerve or irritable muscle, or capable of producing an impression upon a sensory organ or more particularly upon its specific end organ.
Checker: Ronnie
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Incentive, spur, goad, incitement, stimulant, provocative, provocation, motive, encouragement.
Inputed by Antonia
Examples
- He sought her presence more and more, and at last with a frequency that attested it had become to him an indispensable stimulus. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The ordinary course of action fails to give adequate stimulus to emotion and imagination. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- A light is the stimulus to the eye to see something, and the business of the eye is to see. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- In general, every stimulus directs activity. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Mr. Tupman did as he was requested; and the additional stimulus of the last glass settled his determination. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- The stimulus to thinking is found when we wish to determine the significance of some act, performed or to be performed. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The lighting of Pall Mall with gas, in the spring of 1807, gave increased stimulus to the project, and application was made to Parliament to carry it into effect. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- Our tempers certainly did exactly suit each other; and the love must ever predominate on one side, or there will be an end of all stimulus. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word _book_ acted as a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver's Travels from the library. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- The stimulus resides in the situation with which one is actually confronted. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- On the contrary, certain capacities of an individual are not brought out except under the stimulus of associating with others. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- It was evident, from Mr. Trotter's flushed countenance and defective intonation, that he, too, had had recourse to vinous stimulus. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- They were at once the deepest puzzle, the strongest obstruction, and the keenest stimulus, I had ever felt. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Here the stimulus is not just the sight of the ball, or the sight of the other rolling it. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- But may not the stimulus which love has given to fancy be some day exhausted? Plato. The Republic.
- The action of others is always influenced by deciding what stimuli shall call out their actions. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- One does not blush to show modesty or embarrassment to others, but because the capillary circulation alters in response to stimuli. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Gradually certain stimuli are selected because of their relevancy, and others are degraded. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- But the withdrawal alters the stimuli operating, and tends to make them more consonant with the needs of the organism. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- He is merely selecting the stimuli supplied by the forms of the letters and the motor reactions of oral or written reproduction. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The environment can at most only supply stimuli to call out responses. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- By operating steadily to call out certain acts, habits are formed which function with the same uniformity as the original stimuli. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The worst thing about stubbornness of mind, about prejudices, is that they arrest development; they shut the mind off from new stimuli. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Repeated responses to recurrent stimuli may fix a habit of acting in a certain way. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The savage deals largely with crude stimuli; we have weighted stimuli. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- It furnishes original stimuli; it supplies obstacles and resources. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The mere fact that customs are different means that the actual stimuli to behavior are different. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Human beings control animals by controlling the natural stimuli which influence them; by creating a certain environment in other words. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- For it would be seen that the infant reacts to stimuli by activities of handling, reaching, etc. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Their social activities are such as to restrict their objects of attention and interest, and hence to limit the stimuli to mental development. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Typed by Felix