arouse

UK/əˈɹaʊz/US/əˈɹaʊz/

verbB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,573 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: aroused, arousing, arouses

To arouse is to stir a feeling into life, or to wake somebody. Arouse suspicion, arouse interest, arouse him from sleep.

Arouse suspicion is much the commonest use and is nearly a fixed phrase. The sexual sense has grown strong enough that the other uses now need a clear object such as suspicion, curiosity or anger to stay unambiguous.

Definitions of arouse

1verbarouseTo stir a feeling into life, or to wake somebody.B2+
“The strange noise aroused the sleeping dog, which began to bark.”

arouse is a stirring.

Where it comes from

Middle English
rousen
English
rouse
English, today
arouse

From a- + rouse. rouse comes from Middle English rousen. The is derived from Late Middle English rousen (“of a hawk: to shake its feathers”); further etymology unknown. Because many terms of French origin are used in falconry, it has been assumed that the Middle English word is derived from Anglo-Norman or French; however, no satisfactory has been found. The following words have been suggested, but are thought by the Oxford English Dictionary to be unlikely due to the differences in meaning:

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

arouse in the wild

The film was considered so realistic that, shortly after the film was released, rumors arouse that its director Ruggero Deodato was arrested for murder.
Francesca Ciardi
Sights and sounds, exotic in their freshness, arouse the senses to a new awareness.
Jazz Impressions of Japan
Fearful that Operation Snake Eyes would arouse even greater publicity, the Central Intelligence Agency handlers of the guerrillas canceled the operation on orders of the White House.
Operation Snake Eyes
In this case, Azcona does not propose this new art exhibition as a war between symbols, but as an invitation to arouse feelings and, also, as a claim.
Buried (performance art)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

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