How to use 'stimulus' correctly?

[Maggie]

Hi, guys

1.White House, Congress Agree on Economic Stimulus Package
By Scott Stearns

This is a title of News.

What's meaning of Stimulus Package here?

2. The stimulus deal was an unusual display of bipartisanship in Washington, with Democrats and Republicans in the House making concessions to get the deal done quickly.

What's meaning of stimulus deal here?

And would you mind giving some examples to learn how to use stimulus?

By the way, I looked up the dictionary for stimulate. It means to encourage something to grow, develop or become active,but I still have no idea how to use it.

Thanks in advance.

Maggie
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[Jamie (K)]

"Stimulus", in both of these sentences, refers to some measures that the US Congress and President Bush plan to take in order to encourage the economy to grow again, since there have been some problems in the banking system. They are offering a stimulus to help the economy grow.

The word "stimulus" is just an ordinary noun, and it can be used the way ordinary nouns are used. The confusing part for you is probably that in both of those sentences "stimulus" is used as the first element in a compound noun.

"stimulus package" - In that article, this means a group of laws and other measures that are meant to help the economy grow. The president and both parties in Congress have to negotiate about the contents of this "package". That means they have to make a deal regarding this stimulus, so the whole thing is a "stimulus deal".

You can find a lot of definitions of "stimulus" and some example sentences here:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stimulus