come alive
Idioms-
Also, come to life.
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Become vigorous or lively. For example, It took some fast rhythms to make the dancers come alive , or As soon as he mentioned ice cream, the children came to life . The adjective alive has been used in the sense of “vivacious” since the 1700s. Also, the variant originally (late 1600s) meant “to recover from a faint or apparent death.” [ Colloquial ; first half of 1900s]
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Appear real or believable, as in It's really hard to make this prose come to life . Also see look alive .
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.
But Maine is also home to charming hotels and harbor towns with seafood restaurants and seaside promenades that come alive in warm weather.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
Shares of companies that rode high and survived the dot-com bust — but were then relegated to the tech sector’s back ranks during the decades that followed — have suddenly come alive again.
From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026
Filming would take place in two days’ time, so we returned then to see the square come alive with extras in period clothing.
From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026
A millennium old and home to over 20 million people, Cairo is known for nights that come alive with traffic, noise and light.
From Barron's • Apr. 28, 2026
It looks like it might come alive at night.
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
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.
