QUICKEN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Quicken

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/kwˈɪkən/ Listen

verb

Quicken v. t. (past & past part. quickened; pres. part. quickening)

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." "Like a fruitful garden without an hedge, that quickens the appetite to enjoy so tempting a prize."

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.

(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.

Synonyms: To revive; resuscitate; animate; reinvigorate; vivify; refresh; stimulate; sharpen; incite; hasten; accelerate; expedite; dispatch; speed.

Quicken v. i.

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." "And keener lightnings quicken in her eye." "When the pale and bloodless east began To quicken to the sun."

To move with rapidity or activity; to become accelerated; as, his pulse quickened.

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Etymology of 'Quicken'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Quicken" Quotes from Famous Books

... should bivouac and see what the darkness brought forth. I remember reflecting on the amazing luck which had so far attended me. As I looked from my refuge at the blue haze of twilight creeping over the waters, I felt my pulses quicken with ...

— Mr. Standfast • John Buchan

... the people is guaranteed by the Constitution, and they owe no responsibility to any human power but their constituents. By holding the representative responsible only to the people, and exempting him from all other influences, we elevate the character of the constituent and quicken his sense of responsibility to his country. It is under these circumstances only that the elector can feel that in the choice of the lawmaker he is himself truly a component part of the sovereign power of the nation. With equal care we should study to defend the rights of the ...

— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume - V, Part 1; Presidents Taylor and Fillmore • James D. Richardson

... this duality in feeling which he created in her, that made a fine hate of him quicken in her bowels. There was his wonderful, desirable life-rapidity, the rare quality of an utterly desirable man: and there was at the same time this ridiculous, mean effacement into a Salvator Mundi and a Sunday-school teacher, a ...

— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence

... owing to their not being distended to more than half their usual diastole; and in consequence they must contract sooner, or more frequently, in a given time. As weak people are liable to a deficient quantity of blood, this cause may occasionally contribute to quicken the pulse in fevers with debility, which may be known by applying one's hand upon the heart as above; but the principal cause I suppose to consist in the diminution of sensorial power. When a muscle contains, or is supplied with but little sensorial power, its contraction ...

— Zoonomia, Vol. I - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... in and out of meeting. They waited for God to move them, quicken them to life, make them His instruments. They waited for the power of God to do its wonder-work, lifting up the part of them that was akin to Him, gracing them with the miracle of resurrection. Waiting preceded worship. Waiting prepared for worship, ...

— An Interpretation of Friends Worship • N. Jean Toomer

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