ENLIVEN • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... out this stormy gloom, Thy dear smile shall brightly steal; O'er my heart's enliven'd bloom, O'er the ...

— Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems • James Avis Bartley

... so all along the street white and dark red are the only colors to be seen. From a distance all the houses produce an effect of black trimmed with strips of linen, and present an appearance partly festal, partly funereal, leaving one in doubt whether they enliven or depress. At first sight I felt inclined to laugh: it seemed impossible that these houses were not playthings and that serious people could live inside them. I should have said that after the fete for which they had been constructed they must disappear like paper frames ...

— Holland, v. 1 (of 2) • Edmondo de Amicis

... Russians no roads. There is no amusement except in the lumbering diligences of France, that gabbling and indiscreet country, where every one is in a hurry to laugh and show his wit, and where jest and epigram enliven all things, even the poverty of the lower classes and the weightier cares of the solid bourgeois. In a coach there is no police to check tongues, and legislative assemblies have set the fashion of public discussion. When ...

— A Start in Life • Honore de Balzac

... it does!" seconded Button. "And you owe it to the poor untraveled animals to give out some of your experiences to them, to enliven their humdrum lives and tell them about the outside world. Just see what a lot of pleasure the Dog and Cat Club give those stay-at-homes who have never been outside the suburbs of New York City—and most of them have never ...

— Billy Whiskers' Adventures • Frances Trego Montgomery

... the walls, but kept the inspection to himself. He arranged and rearranged, he plunged his hand rapidly into certain mysterious boxes, singing in one of the falsest of voices an old French refrain to enliven the situation. ...

— Jules Verne's Classic Books • Jules Verne

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