Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Quicken

Quick′en

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
quickened
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Quickening
.]
[AS.
cwician
. See
Quick
,
Adj.
]
1.
To make alive; to vivify; to revive or resuscitate, as from death or an inanimate state; hence, to excite; to, stimulate; to incite.
The mistress which I serve
quickens
what’s dead.
Shakespeare
Like a fruitful garden without an hedge, that
quickens
the appetite to enjoy so tempting a prize.
South.
2.
To make lively, active, or sprightly; to impart additional energy to; to stimulate; to make quick or rapid; to hasten; to accelerate;
as, to
quicken
one's steps or thoughts; to
quicken
one's departure or speed.
3.
(Shipbuilding)
To shorten the radius of (a curve); to make (a curve) sharper;
as, to
quicken
the sheer, that is, to make its curve more pronounced
.
Syn. – To revive; resuscitate; animate; reinvigorate; vivify; refresh; stimulate; sharpen; incite; hasten; accelerate; expedite; dispatch; speed.

Quick′en

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To come to life; to become alive; to become vivified or enlivened; hence, to exhibit signs of life; to move, as the fetus in the womb.
The heart is the first part that
quickens
, and the last that dies.
Ray.
And keener lightnings
quicken
in her eye.
Pope.
When the pale and bloodless east began
To
quicken
to the sun.
Tennyson.
2.
To move with rapidity or activity; to become accelerated;
as, his pulse
quickened
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Quicken

QUICKEN

,
Verb.
T.
quik'n.
1.
Primarily, to make alive; to vivify; to revive or resuscitate, as from death or an inanimate state. Rom. 4.
Hence flocks and herds, and men and beasts and fowls, with breath are quicken'd and attract their souls.
2.
To make alive in a spiritual sense; to communicate a principle of grace to.
You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Eph. 2.
3.
To hasten; to accelerate; as, to quicken motion, speed or flight.
4.
To sharpen; to give keener perception to; to stimulate; to incite; as, to quicken the appetite or taste; to quicken desires.
5.
To revive; to cheer; to reinvigorate; to refresh by new supplies of comfort or grace. Ps. 119.

QUICKEN

,
Verb.
I.
quik'n.
1.
To become alive.
The heart is the first part that quickens, and the last that dies.
2.
To move with rapidity or activity.
And keener lightning quickens in her eye.

Definition 2024


quicken

quicken

English

Verb

quicken (third-person singular simple present quickens, present participle quickening, simple past and past participle quickened)

  1. (transitive, now literary) To give life to; to animate, make alive, revive. [from 14thc.]
    • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke XVII:
      Whosoever will goo about to save his lyfe, shall loose it: And whosoever shall loose his life, shall quycken it.
    • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 1
      The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, / And makes my labours pleasures
    • Robert South (1634–1716)
      Like a fruitful garden without an hedge, that quickens the appetite to enjoy so tempting a prize.
  2. (intransitive, now literary) To come back to life, receive life. [from 14thc.]
  3. (intransitive) To take on a state of activity or vigour comparable to life; to be roused, excited. [from 15thc.]
    • 1910, ‘Saki’, "The Lost Sanjak", Reginald in Russia:
      The Chaplain's interest in the story visibly quickened.
  4. (intransitive) Of a pregnant woman: to first feel the movements of the foetus, or reach the stage of pregnancy at which this takes place; of a foetus: to begin to move. [from 16thc.]
    • 2013, Hilary Mantel, ‘Royal Bodies’, London Review of Books, 35.IV:
      Royal pregnancies were not announced in those days; the news generally crept out, and public anticipation was aroused only when the child quickened.
  5. (transitive) To make quicker; to hasten, speed up. [from 17thc.]
    • 2000, George RR Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam 2011, p.47:
      That day Arya quickened their pace, keeping the horses to a trot as long as she dared, and sometimes spurring to a gallop when she spied a flat stretch of field before them.
  6. (intransitive) To become faster. [from 17thc.]
    My heartbeat quickened when I heard him approach.
    • 1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “chapter V”, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 4241346:
      Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
  7. (shipbuilding) To shorten the radius of (a curve); to make (a curve) sharper.
    to quicken the sheer, that is, to make its curve more pronounced
Translations

Etymology 2

Apparently from quick, with uncertain final element.

Noun

quicken (plural quickens)

  1. (now chiefly Northern England) The European rowan, Sorbus aucuparia. [from 15th c.]
    • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not…, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p, 104:
      Miss Wannop moved off down the path: it was only suited for Indian file, and had on the left hand a ten-foot, untrimmed quicken hedge, the hawthorn blossoms just beginning to blacken […].
Synonyms