Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

alive and kicking

Idioms  

  1. Also, alive and well. Alive and alert; living and healthy. For example, John's completely recovered; he's alive and kicking, or You're quite mistaken; our lawyer is alive and well. The first expression, sometimes shortened to live and kicking, originally was used by fishmongers hawking their wares to convince customers of their freshness and has been considered a cliché since about 1850. The variant originated in the 1960s as a denial of someone's reported death.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Dude-bro culture is alive and kicking, especially in a highly energized manosphere.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 7, 2026

Sporting romance was alive and kicking in the Spanish capital.

From BBC • Sep. 30, 2024

In other words mRNA-recipes of certain proteins show that the viruses are alive and kicking.

From Science Daily • Jun. 4, 2024

I thought you had the royals and a few barons with meaningless titles, but actually there’s still aristocrats who are very much alive and kicking in the U.K.

From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2024

"When I made my report two days ago," he continued, "I deliberately refrained from mentioning that we have the remains of the plane—and we also have the pilot, who is quite alive and kicking!"

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.