thrill

thrill vb Thrill, electrify, enthuse are comparable when they mean to fill with emotions that stir or excite physically and mentally or to be stirred by such emotions.

Thrill suggests pervasion by emotions that set one atingle or aquiver (as with pleasure, horror, or excitement); commonly it implies an agreeable sensation even when the exciting cause is potentially distressing or painful

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a thrilling detective story

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by carefully copying what other people did, she would manage to get through . . . this thrilling, agonizing, exquisite ordeal— Sackville-West

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why should not mind be able to pass on to mind its thrilled sense of a storm or a flower . . .?— Montague

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Electrify differs from thrill in suggesting effects comparable to those produced by an electric current that shocks rather than stuns; it implies a sudden, startling, and violent stimulation by a power that for the time being holds one obedient to its will or under its sway

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the blue-eyed girl whose silvery tones and immense vitality had electrified audiences— Tomkins

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she was not eating anything, she was using up all her vitality to electrify these heavy lads into speech— Cather

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Enthuse can be used effectively in respect to an arousing of enthusiasm in someone or an experiencing of enthusiasm about something

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Lubichov, enthused by the music of his native land, beat his baton with more and more zest— Bambrick

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as a dogmatic theologian, the Bishop did not enthuse himself and he did not understand other people's enthusiasms— Frank O'Connor

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the War Dance [among Indians] was a ceremony to arouse the community and enthuse the warriors— Wissler

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Analogous words: excite, stimulate, galvanize, quicken (see PROVOKE): *stir, arouse, rouse, rally: penetrate, pierce, probe (see ENTER): quiver, tremble, shiver (see SHAKE)