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
“Living cultures take symbols and then revivify them and give them meaning.”
From New York Times ● May 7, 2022
“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
The former has been rebuilt, and the latter replenished: yet no Phœnix spirit can revivify the ashes of those volumes which contained the romances notified by the renowned Don Quixote!
From Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance by Thomas Frognall Dibdin
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
It’s a wishful advertisement for a revivified nation, one swept clean of conflict and damage, a view sustained in the work of his students.
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
Undoubtedly, though, the marriage of Spears and Shakespeare will be one of the most talked-about convergences of a revivified D.C. theater scene.
From Washington Post ● May 26, 2021
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
Well, in this instance, nothing does: A buff and blazing James McAvoy leads a fabulous British cast in a revivifying take on “Cyrano.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2022
In recent years, the academy has reversed a number of decisions aimed at revivifying the flagging show, including a much-maligned proposal to institute a “best popular film award.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2022
Anne Rice, meanwhile, was revivifying the Gothic horror tale with stories of vampires.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 30, 2021
But after entropy, narcissism and spiritual decay comes revivifying destruction.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2020
The breeze was at once fresh and warm; to inhale the delicious air of which she had so long been deprived was like a revivifying draught for Johanna.
From A Noble Name or D?nninghausen by Claire Von Gl?mer
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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.
