I am quite familiar with the meaning of "react" as "change in response to a stimulus". For example "She reacted angrily when scolded".
However in the Merriam Webster definition of React in the "transitive verb" section it says "To cause to react". Is this use common?
Can I say for example "The thief used his finger to react the infrared sensor"?
(meaning using the finger to cause the sensor to react)
EDIT:
What would be a good way to rewrite the above sentence?