lively

English

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪv.li/

• Audio (GA)

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Etymology 1

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċ (“living, lively, long-lived, necessary to life, vital”), equivalent to life +‎ -ly. Cognate with Scots lively, lifely (“of or pertaining to life, vital, living, life-like”). Doublet of lifely.

Alternative forms

• lifely (obsolete)

Adjective

lively (comparative livelier, superlative liveliest)

1. Full of life; energetic.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, .”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J. M for John Starkey , →OCLC, page 85, lines 452–455:

     But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haſt, / With youthful ſteps? much livelier then e're while / He ſeems.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 77:

     [...] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of railway viaducts, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 , New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:

     Since sick people were apt to be present, he could not always depend on a lively young crowd in the same ward with him, and the entertainment was not always good.

   • 2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3 – 1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 27 November 2018:

     But with the lively [Giovani] Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers [Roman] Pavlyuchenko and [Jermain] Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.

2. Bright, glowing, vivid; strong, vigorous.
   • 1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light:

     The colours of the prism are manifestly more full, intense, and lively that those of natural bodies.

   • 1688, Robert South, Sacramental Preparation: Set forth in a Sermon on Matthew 5, 12.:

     His faith must be not only living, but lively too.

3. (archaic) Endowed with or manifesting life; living.
   • c. 1600, Philemon Holland

     chaplets of gold and silver resembling lively flowers and leaves

4. (archaic) Representing life; lifelike.
   • 1632, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Fatal Dowry:

     I spied the lively picture of my father.

5. (archaic) Airy; animated; spirited.
   • 1734, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. , epistle IV, London: Printed for J Wilford, , →OCLC, page 80, line 775:

     From grave to gay, from lively to ſevere, [...]

6. (of beer) Fizzy; foamy; tending to produce a large head in the glass.

Synonyms

• (full of life): frisky, peppy, zestful; see also Thesaurus:active
• (vivid, strong, vigorous): intense
• (endowed with or manifesting life): extant, live, vital; see also Thesaurus:alive
• (representing life): lifey, limned, naturalistic,
• (fizzy, foamy): frothy, spumescent

Derived terms

• liveliness
• look lively

Collocations

Translations

Noun

lively (plural livelies)

1. (nautical, informal) Term of address.
   • 1846, Herman Melville, Typee:

     Speak the word, my livelies, and I'll pilot her in.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċe, equivalent to life +‎ -ly.

Adverb

lively (comparative more lively, superlative most lively)

1. Vigorously.
2. Vibrantly, vividly.
3. (obsolete) In a lifelike manner.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Him to a dainty flowre she did transmew, / Which in that cloth was wrought, as if it liuely grew.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes , London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:
     , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.220-1:

     the Painter Protogenes having perfected the image of a wearie and panting dog, but being unable, as he desired, lively to represent the drivel or slaver of his mouth, vexed against his owne worke, took his spunge, and moist as it was with divers colours, threw it at the picture  .

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• evilly, vilely