quicken Meaning, Definition & Usage

verb move faster
speed up; speed; accelerate.
- The car accelerated
verb make keen or more acute
whet.
- whet my appetite
verb give life or energy to
invigorate.
- The cold water invigorated him
verb show signs of life
- the fetus quickened
verb give new life or energy to
repair; revivify; recreate; reanimate; revive; renovate; vivify; animate.
- A hot soup will revive me
- This will renovate my spirits
- This treatment repaired my health

AS. cwician. See Quick, a.

imperfect & past participle quickened ; present participle & verbal noun 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. Shak.

Like a fruitful garden without an hedge, that quickens the appetite to enjoy so tempting a prize. South.
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. Syn. -- To revive; resuscitate; animate; reinvigorate; vivify; refresh; stimulate; sharpen; incite; hasten; accelerate; expedite; dispatch; speed.

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