In life thermodynamics, animate, as contrasted with inanimate, is a term commonly used to define matter or molecular structure that is alive. [1] To quote the 1954 views of Belgian-born English thermodynamicist Alfred Ubbelohde:

“Animate matter [is] termed ‘life’ for short.”

To understand when a piece of matter or molecular unit, such as a DNA molecule, bacteria molecule, or human molecule, etc., becomes animated, logic such as the "induced movement", driving force, exchange force, thermodynamic force, energy source perspectives, etc., are needed. The 1920 thermodynamics book The Animate and the Inanimate, by American prodigy William Sidis, is an example of a publication that makes significant use of the term animate. [2]

Reference
1. (a) Ubbelohde, Alfred René. (1947). Time and Thermodynamics, (ch. IX: “Thermodynamics and Life”). Oxford University Press.
(b) Ubbelohde, Alfred René. (1954). Man and Energy ... Illustrated, (Section: XIII: Thermodynamics and Life, pg. 183-200, Section: XIV: Thermodynamic Laws and Cognition, pg. 201-09). London: Hutchinson's Scientific & Technical Publications.
2. Sidis, William J. (1920). The Animate and the Inanimate, [PDF], (published in 1925, R.G. Badger).
3. Pauling, Linus. (1970). General Chemistry, (section: "The Nature of Life", pgs. 767-69). New York: Dover.