ENLIVEN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Enliven

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/ɛnlˈaɪvən/ Listen

verb

Enliven v. t. (past & past part. enlivened; pres. part. enlivening)

To give life, action, or motion to; to make vigorous or active; to excite; to quicken; as, fresh fuel enlivens a fire. "Lo! of themselves th' enlivened chessmen move."

To give spirit or vivacity to; to make sprightly, gay, or cheerful; to animate; as, mirth and good humor enliven a company; enlivening strains of music.

Synonyms: To animate; rouse; inspire; cheer; encourage; comfort; exhilarate; inspirit; invigorate.

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Etymology of 'Enliven'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Enliven" Quotes from Famous Books

... fashion, will be glad to dine in a more simple manner, in a shorter time, with less display, and with fewer courses, and fewer excitements. One entertainer last winter introduced live swans and small canaries to enliven his dinner. The swans splashed ...

— Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. 33. December, 1873. • Various

... removed from ordinary railway affairs that helped to enliven the latter part of my time on the County Down, and added variety to the work imposed by the Railway and Canal Traffic Act and the revision of Rates and Charges, was a project in which I became engaged connected with ...

— Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland • Joseph Tatlow

... my eyes to the beautiful surface of the mid stream, all burnished with sunset glories, and broken with the vivacious gambols of a school of porpoises. It is curious, I think, that these creatures should come fifteen miles from the sea to enliven the waters round ...

— Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation - 1838-1839 • Frances Anne Kemble

... beautiful and most varied hues. Flowers, insects, and birds are the organisms most generally ornamented in this way; and their symmetry of form, their variety of structure, and the lavish abundance with which they clothe and enliven the earth, cause them to be objects of universal admiration. The relation of this wealth of colour to our mental and moral nature is indisputable. The child and the savage alike admire the gay tints of flowers, birds, and insects; ...

— The Beauties of Nature - and the Wonders of the World We Live In • Sir John Lubbock

... my task, and better—as I have done for these several days past. Lady Anna Maria Elliot arrived unexpectedly to dinner, and though she had a headache, brought her usual wit and good-humour to enliven us. ...

— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott

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