come alive

Idioms  

1. Also, come to life.

2. 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]

3. Appear real or believable, as in It's really hard to make this prose come to life . Also see look alive .

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Example Sentences

“Mother Mary” doesn’t truly come alive unless one is willing to engage with its dense and frequently dour text, which opens with patience.

From Salon • Apr. 24, 2026

Caravaggio, master of a lighting technique to make his subjects seem to come alive, has about 65 surviving known works worldwide, only three of which are portraits.

From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026

"If you look at the athletes France have, if we kick a little too far, or if there's an offload, they come alive," Tandy told the BBC.

From Barron's • Feb. 15, 2026

And yet, the communities and ecosystems that come alive in Ward’s work make you want to be with her people and creatures.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 30, 2026

There must have been some seed he left, to cause a child’s vacant fairy-tale to come alive in that garden.

From "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner