lively

Definition

Full of life; energetic, vivacious.

Etymology

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċ (“living, lively, long-lived, necessary to life, vital”), from Proto-West Germanic *lībalīk (“living, lively”), equivalent to life + -ly. Cognate with Scots lively, lifely (“of or pertaining to life, vital, living, life-like”), Old High German līblīh (“living, animated”), German leiblich (“bodily, corporeal”). Doublet of lifely and lifelike.

Example Sentences

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