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.

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.

A goad: anything that rouses the mind, or that excites to action: a stimulant:- pl. STIMULI.

Anything that rouses to action.

Anything that rouses or excites.

Something which stimulates; a stimulant; a sting.

In med., that which produces a sudden but transitory increase of vital action; anything that excites to action; a stimulant; in bot., applied to stinging hairs with an irritating secretion at the base.

An agent which causes a body or some part of it to react when affected by it.

He does not know the stimulus of pain. – A Maker of History by E. Phillips Oppenheim

When one considers how little mental stimulus and training comes to the average girl after leaving school and is aware of the vast majority who leave school at any early age, she is not surprised at the lack of power to think on the part of so many, and at the very limited knowledge she finds when attempting to teach. – The Girl and Her Religion by Margaret Slattery

His youth had been spent in the respectable middle- class environment of his home at Halle; then came the three years at Hamburg, fantastic and exciting, yet, despite all the artistic stimulus of Keiser's opera- house, inevitably sordid and provincial. – Handel by Edward J. Dent

What a stimulus was this to soldiers, whom he succeeded in persuading that they would all some time or other become Marshals of the Empire! – The Project Gutenberg Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte by Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

The practice of operating by associated capital gives a wonderful stimulus to enterprise, and where such investments are fashionable, no undertaking is too great to be consummated. – The Rise of Cotton Mills in the South by Broadus Mitchell

This bent gives a peculiar beauty and stimulus to his writings, while at the same time it makes the reader crave a little more body and substance. – The Last Harvest by John Burroughs

It keeps the inhabitants of the earth always fully up to the level of the means of subsistence; and is constantly acting upon man as a powerful stimulus, urging him to the further cultivation of the earth, and to enable it, consequently, to support a more extended population. – An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus

If there is greater material well- being and better administration, have not the moral tone and ideal, in the lack of stimulus, been lowered? – Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius by Samuel Dill

In the case of a regularly repeated stimulus, it is simply adjusted to what is there, and out of the series chooses, as it were, one at regular periods. – The Psychology of Beauty by Ethel D. Puffer

I had meant to point out an impossibility; I fancied I had indicated a task and communicated a stimulus. – The Great Miss Driver by Anthony Hope

Let that stimulus be either bodily or mental, its effects are alike to be dreaded. – The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings by Harriet Beecher Stowe

March hoped that Dryfoos would answer that Fulkerson was perfectly enthusiastic about his notion; but he did not need this stimulus, and, at any rate, he went on without it. – A Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean Howells

Under all of them is always found, as a stimulus and motive, the material and moral needs of a new age, which, by reason of historic conditions, were those of the bourgeoisie. – Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History by Antonio Labriola

The acquisition of a measure of rights and power by the middle classes had caused a general swaying upwards; and throughout the peoples of Europe floated those dreams and speculations concerning the equality and fraternity of all men, which needed but a stimulus and an opportunity to assume the practical shape of a revolution. – Chaucer by Adolphus William Ward

He would sometimes urge himself and companions to study by the stimulus of a bet, though bred a Quaker; and on one occasion, by his satisfactory solution of a problem, he won as much as enabled him to buy a winter's store of candles. – Self Help by Samuel Smiles

The stimulus did more than carry off the sensation of fainting, it gave back the power to think consistently; and North sat up as if considering what he should do next. – The Man with a Shadow by George Manville Fenn

The war seems to have given an unhealthy stimulus to hundreds of minds and thousands of pens. – Non-combatants and Others by Rose Macaulay

It has never had any stimulus to grow, or any field in which to blossom and produce fruit. – Phaedrus by Plato