Other forms: activated, activates, activating
To activate is to bring something into use that was waiting. Activate the card, activate an agent, activate the alarm.
In intelligence work a sleeper agent is activated when the moment comes, which is the sense the spy vocabulary keeps. In ordinary life it covers cards, accounts, alarms and subscriptions — activate your card, activate the account. In chemistry, activation energy is the push a reaction needs before it will run. Note deactivate; and that activated charcoal is charcoal treated to make it far more absorbent.
1verbactivateTo bring something into use that was waiting.
“Press the red button to activate the alarm.”
2verbagentTo bring an agent or unit into action.
“The government activated reserve troops to help with the floods.”
activate is a bringing into use.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eǵ-
Middle English
actyf
English
active
English, today
activate
Built from
From active + -ate. active comes from Middle English actyf. From Middle English actyf, from Old French actif, from Latin activus, from ago (“to do, to act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂éǵeti. by surface analysis, en + act + ive.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA