How to Use actuate in a Sentence

actuate

verb

• The pump is actuated by the windmill.
• There are buttons in the handles to actuate steps and set the pace: fast walk, slow walk, climb steps, stop, etc.
  — Evan Ackerman, IEEE Spectrum, 16 Jan. 2023
• The Ergo Clear and Brown (pictured) require the same amount of force to actuate.
  — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 20 Oct. 2022
• 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
• 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 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
• 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 keyboard has reed switches, which use magnets to actuate.
  — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 3 Dec. 2021
• 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
• 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
• For comparison, Cherry MX Reds, have 4 mm of travel and actuate at 2 mm with a force of 45 g.
  — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 29 July 2022
• The drive requires a bit of technique, with a tiny gated shifter pre-selecting the gear changes, which do not occur until the clutch is actuated by foot.
  — Basem Wasef, Robb Report, 10 Mar. 2023
• 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
• 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
• 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, 15 Feb. 2023
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Thompson said that the safety mechanism is similar to the tang safety of a shotgun and includes a mechanical block actuated by a transverse cam mounted on the side of the assembly.
  — Outdoor Life, 21 Jan. 2020
• For comparison, Cherry's most common tactile mechanical switches (MX Browns) have the same specs but actuate at 2 mm with more force, 55 g.
  — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 23 Feb. 2022
• 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
• Comfy dishes would hug my fingertips, and the keys required a noticeable amount of travel, 1.5 mm, to actuate, ensuring the scissor switches never felt mushy or flat but, rather, tactile.
  — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 8 July 2022
• 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
• While this is just a prototype, the half-edible drone does actually fly, achieving speeds of about 10 meters per second with the addition of a motor, some servos to actuate the tail surfaces for control, and a small battery.
  — IEEE Spectrum, 8 Mar. 2023
• The other two axes are the toe brakes, which are actuated by moving the bottom-pivoting stirrups forward (much like pressing a car’s accelerator or brake pedals).
  — Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica, 23 Sep. 2018
• Many of the Logitech gaming keyboards feature low-profile designs with keys that actuate quickly and can be manipulated to create custom controls.
  — Edmund Torr, Popular Science, 19 Feb. 2021
• The most common control mechanism records the electrical activity in the arm muscles – a technique known as myoelectric sensing—and then uses this to actuate the prosthetic.
  — The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 21 Mar. 2022
• Hurst realized that when a finger touches a screen composed of numerous thin resistive layers with thin gaps between them, a computer can read the location of the resulting voltage and actuate the command.
  — Larry Printz, Ars Technica, 24 June 2020

Last Updated: 27 Jun 2024