revivify
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of revivify
1665–75; < French révivifier < Late Latin revīvificāre. See re-, vivify
Explanation
To bring something back to life, or to inject new energy in it, is to revivify. A few days of rain can revivify an area that's been suffering a mild drought. If you've been up late all week studying for a big exam, you might need a good night's sleep to revivify you. For some people, the short, dark days of winter are a little depressing, while the spring sunshine can revivify them. Anything that gives you new life or energy revivifies you. The Old French vivifier, "come alive," and the prefix re-, "again," are at the root of revivify.
Vocabulary lists containing revivify
Power Prefix: re-
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 6
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: re-
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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.
See Examples For:
A rigorous education in the humanities must fill the student with “wonder, admiration, and, above all, gratitude and humility, without which any attempt to revivify a decaying culture will fail.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
The effect of the literal trains and the physical doors is to revivify concepts that are so much a part of popular consciousness that they have become abstract, almost generic.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 6, 2019
If anyone can revivify the Frankenstein story, it’s adventurous, prize-winning British writer Jeanette Winterson.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2019
You could almost believe that the city’s core would be able to radiate out energy like a star and revivify those satellites so far away in space and time.
From New York Times ● May 29, 2013
Further, on 19th April, he induced Haugwitz to sign a treaty which promised to revivify the monarchical cause.
From William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose
The men barrel out of the forest chastened but revivified.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Jazz haunts with debts owed to its creators, and has a knack for revivals, collectives, new venues in the old forms, and stalwart clubs revivified by benefactors and grant funding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
Their choice is pure vanity, favoring a sculpted bod over a revivified brain.
From Slate ● Jan. 1, 2020
“In effect, he performed emergency surgery and totally revivified the brand,” Steele told The Washington Post.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2019
The National Research Council, which had been founded in 1916 as a conduit of government funds to academic institutions but had been hobbled by political infighting and academic mistrust, became revivified in the postwar years.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Also revivifying is the way Turner reshapes the wedding genre for our time, inviting new characters to the party.
From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2022
Anne Rice, meanwhile, was revivifying the Gothic horror tale with stories of vampires.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 30, 2021
The evening commences in the ground-floor bar with a revivifying drink and a snack: “Ham of the sea,” a server poetically announces a pungent slice of dried tuna loin.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2021
But after entropy, narcissism and spiritual decay comes revivifying destruction.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2020
Spring was at hand, with its muddy roads, blue skies, sweeter airs, soft rains, and a general revivifying feeling.
From Carolyn of the Corners by Ruth Belmore Endicott
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
