revivify

American  

[ri-viv-uh-fahy] / rɪˈvɪv əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

revivified, revivifying

1. to restore to life; give new life to; revive; reanimate.

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revivify British  

/ rɪˈvɪvɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. (tr) to give new life or spirit to; revive

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Other Word Forms

• revivification
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of revivify

1665–75; < French révivifier < Late Latin revīvificāre. See re-, vivify

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

revivify revivified revivifying

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

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

And he wrote the book for the big-budget stage adaptation of “King Kong,” which was poorly reviewed and closed as a flop on Broadway, although the producers are hoping to revivify the musical in Shanghai.

From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2019

In the first place, there were a number of measures to strengthen and revivify the Acts of Trade.

From The Wars Between England and America by T. C. Smith

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

By last September, when a Jaimes strip spawned the meme “Sluggo is lit,” the revivified “Nancy” — which had reached its commercial zenith decades ago under Ernie Bushmiller — was once again a cultural hit.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 9, 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

But Jerzy Skolimowski’s formally radical, emotionally wrenching drama about the travails of a donkey is by far this category’s — and perhaps the year’s — most cinematically revivifying achievement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2023

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

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

In an 186 incredibly short time she had produced, in collaboration with the oil stove, eggs scrambled on bread deliciously toasted, tea of a revivifying heat and strength.

From Out of the Air by Inez Haynes Gillmore

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