Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cause to become enthusiastic.
  • intransitive verb To say or utter with enthusiasm.
  • intransitive verb To show or express enthusiasm.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make enthusiastic; move with enthusiasm: as, he quite enthused his hearers.
  • To become enthusiastic; show enthusiasm: as, he is slow to enthuse.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb Slang To make or become enthusiastic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive to show enthusiasm
  • verb proscribed to cause (someone) to feel enthusiasm or to be enthusiastic

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb utter with enthusiasm
  • verb cause to feel enthusiasm

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from enthusiasm.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested from 1827. Back-formation from enthusiasm, from Ancient Greek ἔνθεος (entheos, "possessed by a god"), from ἐν (en, "in") + θεός (theos, "god")

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