Vivifying

ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ING².]

  1.  That vivifies or animates physically; life-giving, quickening.

1635.  Heywood, Hierarchy, VI. 374. The second Adam, sleeping in a vivifying death.

1671.  J. Webster, Metallogr., viii. 127. That vivifying and incombustible sulphur that is Natures true fire and agent.

1707.  Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 59. The vivifying Juice, with which the Earth is impregnated.

1776.  Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LXVI. 231. In other places … he explodes the doctrine of a vivifying spirit in the air.

1799.  Monthly Rev., XXX. 570. The vivifying action of the atmosphere.

1828.  Steuart, Planter’s G. (ed. 2), 321. I have repeatedly tried it on all sorts of subjects,… and its vivifying powers have proved extraordinary in every instance.

1836.  Penny Cycl., V. 246/2. The monads, and the vivifying animalcules of flowering plants.

1871.  Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (1879), II. xii. 275. The vivifying gas cannot penetrate to the centre of the film.

  † b.  Of medicines: Restorative. Obs.

1665.  Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Wars, Pref. Whose Aid was not onely as a Hand to uphold, but a vivifying Medicine to a fainting Body.

1727.  Swift, Further Acc. E. Curll, Wks. 1755, III. I. 160. That all our members … be provided with a sufficient quantity of the vivifying drops, or Byfield’s sal volatile.

1762.  Goldsm., Cit. W., lxviii. It may sometimes happen that … a countryman who cannot read, dies without ever hearing of the vivifying drops.

  2.  That vivifies spiritually or mentally; imparting interest or energy.

1768.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 45. That vivifying ingredient which gives life and vigour to our motives.

1770.  Burke, Pres. Discont., Wks. 1842, I. 134. Without it,… the people cannot long enjoy … the vivifying energy of good government.

1809–10.  Coleridge, Friend (ed. 3), III. 85. The vivifying influences of the altar, the censer, and the sacrifice.

1838.  Prescott, Ferd. & Is. (1846), III. xiv. 105. The vivifying impulse of patriotic sentiment.

1884.  Athenæum, 7 June, 722/2. Human beings … cannot dispense with some such vivifying element in their religion.

  3.  Vivifying ink, a liquid that brings out what has been written in sympathetic ink.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 42. Soak a double paper in the vivifying ink.