Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To make lively or spirited; animate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To give life, action, or motion to; make vigorous or active; vivify; quicken.
  • To give spirit or vivacity to; animate; make sprightly, gay, or cheerful.
  • Synonyms To exhilarate, cheer, inspirit, gladden, invigorate, rouse, wake up.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To give life, action, or motion to; to make vigorous or active; to excite; to quicken.
  • transitive verb To give spirit or vivacity to; to make sprightly, gay, or cheerful; to animate

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete, transitive To give life or spirit to; to revive or animate.
  • verb transitive To make more lively, cheerful or interesting.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb heighten or intensify
  • verb make lively

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Life + en- -en, intensifying verbal circumfix.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word enliven.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.