Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To cause to feel happily refreshed and energetic; elate.
  • transitive verb To invigorate; stimulate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make cheerful, lively, or merry; render glad or joyous; cheer; enliven; gladden.
  • Synonyms To animate, inspirit, elate.
  • To become cheerful or joyous.

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

  • transitive verb To make merry or jolly; to enliven; to animate; to gladden greatly; to cheer
  • intransitive verb rare To become joyous.

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

  • verb archaic To make happy, cheer up.
  • verb To refreshingly thrill.
  • verb To bring new life to.

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

  • verb fill with sublime emotion

Etymologies

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

[Latin exhilarāre, exhilarāt- : ex-, intensive pref.; see ex– + hilarāre, to make cheerful (from hilaris, hilarus, cheerful, from Greek hilaros).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin exhilarare ("to gladden, make merry, delight"), from ex ("from") + hilarare ("to cheer up, gladden"), from hilaris ("glad").

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