as in to stimulate
to give life, vigor, or spirit to
in most instances it's a good idea to enliven a speech with a joke or two
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Recent Examples of enliven
Edmonton drew within 3-1 on the first goal of the Final from McDavid, briefly enlivening the home crowd.
—
Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 15 June 2025
Throughout, Perry’s documentary shares a problem endemic to thematic studies of movies, whether academic or popular: its cross-section is necessarily art-indifferent, and not all the footage here is enlivening.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 June 2025
The bones remain but have been enlivened with bright white paint, and paired down with angular furniture, blonde wood flooring, sculptural lighting, and smart technology in the guest rooms that seems out of the next century.
—Madeline Weinfield, Architectural Digest, 5 May 2025
Barry Jenkins’s best efforts to enliven the Lion King prequel, Mufasa, couldn’t prevent it from feeling like a capital-p Product.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for enliven
Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 15 June 2025
Throughout, Perry’s documentary shares a problem endemic to thematic studies of movies, whether academic or popular: its cross-section is necessarily art-indifferent, and not all the footage here is enlivening.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 June 2025
The bones remain but have been enlivened with bright white paint, and paired down with angular furniture, blonde wood flooring, sculptural lighting, and smart technology in the guest rooms that seems out of the next century.
—Madeline Weinfield, Architectural Digest, 5 May 2025
Barry Jenkins’s best efforts to enliven the Lion King prequel, Mufasa, couldn’t prevent it from feeling like a capital-p Product.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for enliven
Recent Examples of Synonyms for enliven
stimulate
Verb
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Doing so could stimulate economic growth, and would be warmly welcomed by the White House and investors.—
Hugh Cameron,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 July 2025
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Examples include flashing notifications that make your phone jump and squeak, colorful rewards when others like your posts, and algorithms that push out the most emotional content to stimulate your most base emotions of anger, shame or glee.—
Lisa Schirch,
The Conversation,
7 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Enliven.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/enliven. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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