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:
And I think for America to make this comeback, we need to figure out how to revivify place.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
“Cyrano” joins a crop of recent movies that have sought to revivify the musical form: Here, the effort is uneven, if ultimately deeply moving.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 23, 2022
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
Confucius had hoped to revivify Chow—had begun with that hope, at any rate: Mencius hoped to raise up some efficient sovereign who should overturn Chow.
From The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 by Morris, Kenneth
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
Niftiest of all, each episode highlights one of Dickinson’s poems, which feel revivified, not merely invoked.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 18, 2019
Thirty years after its publication, this defining monograph of the writer’s photography has been revivified, thanks to digital scans of Welty’s work.
From New York Times ● May 17, 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
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
Miranda’s rap-sodic historical epic may not save the soul of a battered republic, but its consolations are real, its pleasures revivifying, its emotional force galvanic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2020
But after entropy, narcissism and spiritual decay comes revivifying destruction.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2020
If, therefore, this which is an exaggeration now was then a necessary revivifying truth may there not be others like it?
From The Hearts of Men by Fielding, H. (Harold)
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.
