How to Use actuate in a Sentence

actuate

verb
  • The pump is actuated by the windmill.
  • And there is a side lever to actuate the magazine and load the chamber for rapid follow up shots.
    — Joseph Albanese, Field & Stream, 28 Feb. 2020
  • The keyboard has reed switches, which use magnets to actuate.
    — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 3 Dec. 2021
  • If the camera takes nearly a second to actuate, that deer may not even appear in the camera’s frame.
    — Camryn Rabideau, Popular Mechanics, 13 Oct. 2022
  • The window switches are mounted high and far forward on the door panel and awkward to actuate.
    — Alexander Stoklosa, Car and Driver, 1 June 2017
  • When the joystick of the left hand control is actuated, a waterfall roar arises from the spinning of the left tread.
    — Kevin Dupzyk, Popular Mechanics, 13 Nov. 2018
  • The Ergo Clear and Brown (pictured) require the same amount of force to actuate.
    — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 20 Oct. 2022
  • The delay was caused by a frozen pressurization valve that could not be actuated remotely.
    — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 20 Apr. 2023
  • The first car was stopped at the light, but not pulled up far enough to actuate the signal so the driver of the second car sounded his horn and motioned to pull forward.
    — cleveland, 21 Sep. 2022
  • Optical mechanical switches actuate based on whether or not the switch's stem is passing through a light beam in the switch's housing.
    — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 28 Mar. 2022
  • Optical switches actuate via light rather than metal contacts.
    — Zackery Cuevas, PC Magazine, 6 Apr. 2026
  • The feature is actuated when the driver floors the throttle and can be used up to 30 times before the battery is depleted.
    — Drew Dorian, Car and Driver, 29 June 2023
  • The awkward hip motion on the final jump is due to minimal ability to actuate in mid-jump by virtue of not having an upper torso (or tail).
    — IEEE Spectrum, 12 Oct. 2018
  • The awkward hip motion on the final jump is due to minimal ability to actuate in mid-jump by virtue of not having an upper torso (or tail).
    — IEEE Spectrum, 12 Oct. 2018
  • The flames are fed by a 10-gallon liquid propane tank, which is secured in the snail’s neck and will be actuated by reins attached to a pair of globe valves pictured here.
    — Lewis Wallace, WIRED, 29 Aug. 2008
  • The extra-large thumb lever is also easy to actuate, so even an uncoordinated stab isn’t really an issue.
    — Popular Science, 14 Sep. 2020
  • The tiny paddles click with satisfying feedback and draw from an internal nine-volt battery to actuate an infrared transponder.
    — Basem Wasef, Car and Driver, 18 Aug. 2022
  • The two chambers of the soft, pneumatic finger are actuated manually, using two large syringes filled with air.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 18 Feb. 2022
  • The original version incorrectly stated that all three rear fins are actuated.
    — Mike Wall, Space.com, 17 Sep. 2018
  • Before robots like this can explore the real world, researchers will have to figure out how to power and actuate them some other way, with hydraulic systems perhaps.
    — Matt Simon, WIRED, 2 July 2019
  • As Bergum rushed to shut down the engine and feather the propeller, the crew actuated the single-shot engine fire extinguisher.
    — Eric Tegler, Popular Mechanics, 8 Aug. 2017
  • Without power, the 911's outside door handles no longer actuate the latch, even though the car was previously unlocked.
    — Dave Vanderwerp, Car and Driver, 22 Aug. 2020
  • Carbon-ceramic brake rotors are standard, and the Tributo's stoppers require a strong leg to actuate.
    — Scott Oldham, Car and Driver, 29 May 2020
  • Typical mechanical switches actuate when two pieces of metal make contact.
    — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 21 June 2022
  • These are often hyper-redundant, rather than grossly under-actuated.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 31 Aug. 2016
  • Every cylinder in the engine can be deactivated via a mechanism that prevents the cam from actuating that cylinder's valves.
    — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 15 Feb. 2018
  • The end result is a climbing mechanism that uses one high torque-density servo to drive long steps up the wall, and one even smaller servo to actuate motion towards and away from the wall.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 16 Mar. 2016
  • The joints do currently have small servos to actuate them a little bit, but this is mainly to simplify the dynamics of the system in order to run everything onboard.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Weightlifting performance of individual and bundled fiber muscles actuated via a heat gun.
    — Sid Perkins, Scientific American, 11 July 2019
  • The robots respond differently depending on how researchers actuate them.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 29 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'actuate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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