revive

ruh-VYV/ɹəˈvaɪv/ri-VYV/ɹɪˈvaɪv/

20 meanings of revive

1
verbfigurativelytransitive
To cause something to recover from decline, neglect, or obscurity, making it active and lively again.
The festival helped revive a craft tradition that had nearly disappeared.
Investors hoped to revive the struggling company within two years.
Similarrenew, refresh, reinvigorate, revitalize, reestablish
Note
It stretches from the largest scale to the smallest. The Manx language died out and has been revived, and it is now taught in schools on the Isle of Man. A new paint job can revive a waiting room. Reestablish and renew suit a language or custom. Refresh suits a room. When the thing recovers on its own, the verb drops its object: the intransitive use.
2
verbtransitive
To cause a person or animal to recover from a faint and return to consciousness.
Paramedics worked quickly to revive the unconscious driver.
A whiff of smelling salts was enough to revive the fainting actor.
Similarresuscitate, rouse, awaken
Note
Much of the word's range was present from the start: Middle English reviven already meant to regain consciousness, to recover from illness, and to return to life after death. Here someone else does the reviving, so the word sits easily in the passive: she would not want to be revived; the puppy was revived by a soft hand. When a person comes round unaided, English switches to the intransitive "come round" use.
3
verbtransitive
To bring a person or animal that has died back to life.
Legends tell of saints who could revive the dead with a single touch.
No medicine can revive a creature once its heart has truly stopped.
Similarresurrect, reanimate
Note
Raising the dead belongs to poetry, scripture and argument. Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) praises cheeks able to heal the sick and to revive the dead, and Thomas Fuller's Church-history of Britain (1655) doubts that God ever revived a beast. Revive the dead is the set phrase. Revive also covers bringing someone out of a faint, so when you mean death, resurrect or reanimate removes any doubt.
4
verbfigurativelytransitive
To renew something in people's memories or bring it back to public attention.
Her book aims to revive interest in long-forgotten women writers.
The trial revived old questions about who was really responsible.
Similarrekindle, resurrect
Note
The usual objects are interest and memory: you revive interest in something, or revive the memory of someone. Thomas Nashe, in Pierce Penilesse (1592), was mocked for reviving the reverend memory of Sir Thomas More. Francis Bacon, in 1605, asks leave to revive the abused name of natural magic. Here the thing restored is a word's good reputation.
5
verbfigurativelytransitive
To cause a feeling, mood, or state of mind to come back or return.
The letter revived hopes that had long since faded.
Seeing the old house can revive a strange sense of longing.
Similarrekindle, reawaken, renew, restore
Note
Feelings are the object here: lust, desire, a wearied spirit. Thomas Elyot's The Castel of Helth (1539) credits partridge with reviving lust that has abated. Spenser's enchantress in The Faerie Queene keeps a knight where nothing might revive his desire for knightly exercise. Keep it apart from the sense of memory and attention. This one brings back what someone feels; that one brings back what people remember or notice.
6
verbfigurativelytransitive
To stage a new production of a musical, play, film, or television program.
Producers chose to revive the wartime drama for its fiftieth anniversary.
The network revived the canceled series after fans campaigned online.
Similarrestage, remount
Oppositecancel
Note
It began as a theater word. Thomas Heywood's Pleasant Dialogues (1637) prints a prologue to his play of Queen Elizabeth "as it was last revived at the Cock-pit." The sense has since spread to film and television, where a network can revive a canceled series. A revived work gets a new production of something that already existed; it does not simply continue the old run.
7
verbintransitive
Of a person, animal, or plant, to return to health and strength, especially after almost dying.
The seedlings revived once the rains finally returned.
Many of the rescued animals revive quickly once they are warm and fed.
Similarrecover, rally, recuperate
Oppositedeteriorate
Note
Plants and whole landscapes revive as readily as people. John Palsgrave, in 1530, describes a thing withered or almost dead returning to life. The King James Bible promises that the faithful "shall revive as the corn." In Milton's Paradise Lost, the fields revive under the evening sun. Revive fits a drooping seedling as naturally as a patient who nearly died.
8
verbintransitive
To recover from a faint and return to consciousness.
The fainting guest revived as soon as the windows were opened.
Patients usually revive within moments of receiving fresh air.
Similarrecover
Oppositefaint
Note
The King James Bible of 1611 shows how thin the line is. After Samson drinks, "his spirit came again, and he revived." The same Bible uses the same words of a dead child restored by Elijah, which is returning from death. Only context tells a swoon from a resurrection. John Palsgrave, in 1530, pairs the verb with swoon: a man so far gone he may never revive again.
9
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To recover from decline, neglect, or obscurity and become active or lively again.
The local market revived once tourists returned to the area.
Old traditions can revive when younger generations take an interest.
Similarrecover, rally, rebound, flourish
Oppositedecline
Note
The Renaissance was told in this verb: classical learning revived in the 15th century. Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1711) has sculpture and her sister arts revive under Leo X. Evelyn's translation of Fréart (1668) sees painting revive in the age of Leonardo and Raphael. Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis shows the picture underneath, a dying coal that revives with wind: a fire nearly out, then fanned.
10
verbintransitive
To come alive again after having died, said of a person or animal.
Stories claim the hero revived once the ancient curse was lifted.
According to the myth, the slain god would revive each spring.
Similarreanimate
Oppositedie
Note
Its classic settings are scripture and lament. William Tyndale's New Testament (1526) says Christ died and rose again and revived. In Shakespeare's The First Part of Henry the Sixth, a mourner insists that Henry is dead and never shall revive. Reanimate is its close synonym. Beware the bare "he revived": the King James Bible uses identical wording for Samson coming round.

11
verbfigurativelyintransitive
Of a feeling or state of mind: to come back or become active once more.
Public anger revived as the scandal resurfaced.
Old loyalties tend to revive whenever the team plays its rival.
Similarreturn, resurface, reawaken
Oppositefade, subside
Note
Heart and spirit are its usual subjects, and with them it means taking courage. John Palsgrave, in 1530, renders "I quicken or revive" as "I take heart." In the King James Bible, the people hear the words and "their spirit revived." Tyndale's "sin revived, and I was dead" shows the darker side: what comes back need not be welcome.
12
verbfigurativelytransitive
To make something that has become faded or unclear fresh or clear again; to refresh.
The coach revived the players' confidence with a short speech.
A strong cup of coffee will revive your focus during a long shift.
Similarrestore, refresh, renew, boost
Note
Here the reviving is often literal, done to cloth or ink. Dickens's Sketches by Boz (1836) describes a shabby-genteel man whose familiar suit is suddenly a deep, glossy black, darns and all. Eugene O'Curry, in 1856, applied a preparation to a blank-looking stretch of vellum beside a name to bring faded writing back. Faded color and faded script are the typical objects.
13
verbfigurativelyintransitive
Of a play, musical, film, or television program: to be put on again in a new production.
The 1950s comedy revived to packed houses across the country.
Beloved dramas tend to revive whenever a new generation discovers them.
Note
Richard Steele, writing as Isaac Bickerstaff in 1709, predicted that plays will revive and take their usual place in the opinion of persons of wit. He meant drama regaining favor after a fashion for dress and sound, not one play's new production. In that use the sense shades into the general recovery meaning, and context decides which is meant.
14
verbfigurativelyhistoricaltransitive
To bring a law or legal instrument back into force, giving it renewed validity.
Parliament revived the expired statute to address the crisis.
[S]uche Lawes made by hym, as kyng Henry the ſixt, had cauſed to be abrogated and adnichilated, he again reuiued and renouated.
a. 1548 (date written), Edward Hall, Richard Grafton
Similarreenact, reinstate, revalidate, renew, restore
Oppositerepeal
Note
Legal language uses this verb for a law that has lapsed, expired or been repealed and is made binding once more. Thomas Elyot praises a king who "revived the laws" in 1531, and William Blackstone's Commentaries (1769) describe a statute that "revives and confirms all statutes" made before an earlier reign. The usage now belongs mainly to legal history. Its object is the law itself, unlike its intransitive partner.
15
verbrarefigurativelyhistoricalintransitive
Of a law or legal instrument: to become valid and enforceable again.
The repealed measure revived after the courts overturned its replacement.
Lapsed regulations sometimes revive when emergency powers expire.
Oppositelapse
Note
The law itself is the subject here, regaining force rather than being given it. The use is uncommon even in historical writing. Legal prose more naturally says that a statute was revived, using the transitive legal sense, and names whoever or whatever brought it back.
16
verbfigurativelyhistoricaltransitive
In early chemistry, to recover a metal, especially mercury, or another substance from a compound or mixture in its pure form.
By roasting the cinnabar, the chemist revived the mercury locked inside it.
Early metallurgists could revive certain metals from their oxides with charcoal.
Similarreduce
Note
Older chemistry's word for getting a metal back out of a compound: you could revive a metal after calcination. A 1649 recipe by Henry Atkins and others calls for mercury distilled with bay salt or revived with cinnabar, and mercury is the metal most often meant. Modern chemistry calls the process reduction. Revive belongs to historical accounts of the art.
17
verbobsoletefigurativelyintransitive
To come out of a compound or mixture in a pure, unmixed state, said of a metal, especially mercury, or another substance.
As the furnace grew hotter, the silver gradually revived from the slag.
Certain metals would revive when the binding sulfur was driven off.
Note
Where the chemist's transitive verb is simply historical, this use with the metal itself as subject is obsolete and rare as well. In writing about early chemistry, the passive is the safer shape: the mercury was revived, rather than the mercury revived.
18
verbobsoletefigurativelytransitive
To restore someone's health or strength.
The nurse's careful tending revived the fevered child within days.
What helpes reuiue, / the thriuing, to thriue. / Plough fence and ſtore, / aught elſe before.
1580, Thomas Tusser, “Septembers Abstract”
Note
Restoring someone's health this way is obsolete, and the use was rare even when current. Thomas Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry (1580) uses it for what helps the thriving thrive on a farm. Its intransitive counterpart, recovering health or vigor, is not marked obsolete. Today, revive someone is read as bringing them out of a faint, so restore is the safer verb for health.
19
verbobsoletefigurativelytransitive
To hold an election over again; to rerun it.
After the ballots were lost, the magistrate ordered the town to revive the election.
The council revived the contested poll the following month.
Note
Law and politics once used it for running an election again, but the use is obsolete and was always rare. A modern writer should say rerun or hold again. Revive an election would now be taken figuratively, as reviving the custom of holding one.
20
nounobsolete
An act of reviving, or the state of being revived.
The season brought a welcome revive of trade in the harbor town.
Critics spoke of a revive in the poet's fortunes after years of neglect.
Similarrevival
Note
As a noun it is obsolete, and revival has taken its place in every use. Samuel Pepys's diary of 1663 has it amid theater gossip about the actors of Sir William Davenant's house. Anyone writing today should use revival; a revive of trade would read as a mistake.

Practice

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Origin

The verb comes from Late Middle English reviven ("to recover from illness, regain consciousness, or return to life"), via Anglo-Norman and Old French revivre ("to return to life; to renew"), and directly from Latin revīvere, from revīvō "to live again." This is formed from re- ("again") plus vīvō ("to be alive, to live"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- ("to live"). The noun is derived from the verb.