Forms: α. 4 quicken, -in, quikken, -in, quiken, -yn, queken, qui-, quykne, quicn-, quykene(n, qwi-, qwycken, (-kk-), qwi-, qwykyn, qwykn-, 4–5 qwyken, 5 quyknyn, 4–6 quyken, 5–6 quikin, 5–8 quickn-, 6 quycken, -yn, quyckn-, Sc. quyckyn, -kkin, quikkine, quikn-, 6– quicken. β. 4 quhykine, whiken, 5 qwhykkyn. [f. QUICK a. + -EN5. Cf. ON. kvikna, kykna to come to life, come into being, Sw. qvickna; Da. dial. kvægne to refresh. In Eng. the trans. sense is more usual than the intr.]
I. Transitive senses.
1. To give or restore life to; to make alive; to vivify or revive; to animate (as the soul the body).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 20883. Petre … a ded he quickend wit his schade.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 344. Whenne he had qwickened lazar, he brouȝt him out of his sepulcre.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 421/1. Quyknyn [K., P. quykyn], vegeto, vivifico.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Kings v. 7. Am I God then, that I can kyll and quycken agayne.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. i. 77. A medicine … able to breath life into a stone, Quicken a rocke.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 28. The soul that I was quickned with at birth day, is the same that I am quickned with at this day.
1730–46. Thomson, Autumn, 664. Still the fresh Spring finds New plants to quicken.
1819. Shelley, Cenci, IV. i. 189. Ill things Shall, with a spirit of unnatural life, Stir and be quickened.
1876. Morris, Sigurd, II. 84. How many things shalt thou quicken, how many shalt thou slay!
b. fig. in renderings of Biblical passages, or echoes of these, occas. with ref. to spiritual life.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter lxxxiv. 6. God, þou turned qwycken vs sal.
1357. Lay Folks Catech., 150. [Crist] whikend [Lamb. MS. qwyknyd] us un-to lyf thurgh his risyng.
1382. Wyclif, John vi. 64. It is the spirit that quykeneth, the fleysch profiteth nothing.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. Prol. 128. To quykkin thy sclavys tholit schamful ded maiste fell.
1563. Winȝet, trans. Vincent. Lirin., Wks. 1890, II. 23. He wald … quikin his spiritual peple afoir slane.
a. 1653. Binning, Serm. (1845), 9. The second Adam aspired to quicken what Adam killed.
† c. To be quickened = 6 b. Obs.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. 1883–4, V. 268. She was now quickned, and cast away by the cruelty of Æolus.
1607. Markham, Caval., I. (1617), 50. Let their Mares after they are quickned, be moderately travelled or wrought.
2. To give, add or restore vigor to (a person or thing); to stimulate, stir up, rouse, excite, inspire.
a. a person.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. lxxxix. 111. Loue quickened hym day and night. Ibid. (1525), II. cx. [cvi.] 317. I am quickened so to do.
1542. N. Udall, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 7. A contynuall spurre … to pricke and to quicken me to goodnes.
a. 1632. T. Taylor, God’s Judgem., I. II. lii. (1642), 413. You … he now quickened and stirred up to his love.
1703. Penn, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 271. I hope … you will be quickened to show yourselves men in that affair.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxvii. 352. We were like men driven to the wall, quickened, not depressed.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 5. 519. He rode through England to quicken the electors to a sense of the crisis.
b. a feeling, faculty, action, course of things, etc. † Also with up.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., clxxxi. To quikin treuly day by day my lore.
1450–1530. Myrr. Our Ladye, 68. Other bokes ther be that ar made to quyken, & to sturre vp the affeccyons of the soule.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1595), 236. The first honour that valliant mindes do come vnto, doth quicken vp their appetite.
1659. Rushw., Hist. Coll., I. 538. Sir Dudley Diggs quickned his motion and spoke roundly.
1723. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 89. This quickened my resolution.
1781. Cowper, Charity, 522. The frequent interjected dash Quickens a market, and helps off the trash.
1853. Maurice, Proph. & Kings, ix. 150. The savage impulses of the soldier became quickened.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., IV. II. iii. 194. Other conventional beliefs, too, were quickened into startling realities.
c. absol.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxix. (1887), 215. To consider of education and learning, what is good and quickneth.
1637. Heywood, Royall King, II. Wks. 1874, VI. 33. The King … quickens most where he would most destroy.
a. 1859. De Quincey, in ‘H. A. Page,’ Life (1877), I. ii. 20. Pillar of fire, that didst go before me to guide and to quicken.
3. To kindle (a fire); to cause or help to burn up.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xvii. 10. Coles þat before ware ded … ere kyndild and qwikynd agayn.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 322. Her desir Is to be qwykkened and liȝtned of ȝour fire.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., xiv. 59. I will yet once againe, quicken this cole.
1751. Affect. Narr. of Wager, 105. The Fire they dress’d by was … quickned by the Timber of one of the Casks.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 75. While she Quickened the fire.
1887. Browning, Parleyings, F. Furini, xi. Let my spark Quicken your tinder.
4. a. To make (liquor or medicine) more sharp or stimulant. ? Obs.
1591. Spenser, Muiopotmos, 196. Dull Poppie, and drink-quickning Setuale.
1713. Steele, Guard., No. 143, ¶ 8. Rack-Punch, quickned with Brandy and Gun-powder.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. xi. § 3 (1734), 232. Diaphoreticks … quickened with volatill Spirits.
1799. M. Underwood, Diseases Children (ed. 4), I. 55. A few grains of magnesia … forms a much neater medicine (which may be quickened and warmed by the addition of a few drops of tincture of senna).
b. To imbue (tin) with quicksilver. rare.
1799. [see QUICKENING vbl. sb. and ppl. a.].
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 728. Mercury … soon unites itself with the tin, which then becomes very splendid, or, as the workmen say, is quickened.
c. dial. To work with yeast. (Halliwell.)
5. To hasten, accelerate, give speed to.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 990. You may sooner by Imagination quicken or slacke a Motion, than raise or cease it.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 127. In what proportion Smoothness, Sope and Tallow doth quicken [a ship’s way].
1776. Adam Smith, W. N. (1869), I. I. i. 11. To facilitate and quicken their own particular part of the work.
1786. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 17 July. I was only quickening my pace, when I was again stopped.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, IV. xxxv. 381. It had induced him to quicken his departure.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. iv. § 11 (1864), 275. In rapid walking, the very thoughts are quickened.
b. To make (a curve) sharper.
1711. W. Sutherland, Ship-build. Assist., 162. To Quicken the Sheer; to shorten the Radius that strikes out the Curve.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 139. To quicken, to give anything a greater curve.
II. Intransitive senses.
6. To receive life, to become living; † also, to recover life, to revive.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Kings xvii. 22. The soule of the child is turned aȝen with ynne hym, and he aȝen quikenyde.
1530. Palsgr., 677/1. I quycken, I revyve, as a thyng dothe that fyrst doth begyn to styrre, or that was wyddered, or almoste deed.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 29. Hym that killeth the child so sone as it beginneth to quicken.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. ii. 67. As Sommer Flyes … That quicken euen with blowing.
1691. Ray, Creation (1692), 74. Their Spawn would be lost in those Seas, the bottom being too cold for it to quicken there.
1823. Scott, Peveril, xiii. The seed which is sown shall one day sprout and quicken.
1842. Tennyson, Vision of Sin, 210. Below were men and horses pierced with worms, And slowly quickening into lower forms.
fig. 1851. Dixon, W. Penn, xv. (1872), 132. The germ of Pennsylvania was quickening into life.
b. Of a female: To reach the stage of pregnancy at which the child shows signs of life. Cf. 1 c.
1530. Palsgr., 677/1. She quyckynned on al hallon day.
1662–3. Pepys, Diary, 1 Jan. She quickened at my Lord Gerard’s at dinner.
1748. [see QUICKENING vbl. sb.].
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), IV. 183. A woman … became pregnant, quickened and had a flow of milk in the breasts.
fig. 1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., II. 26. Barren Night did pregnant grow, And quickend with the World in Embrio.
7. fig. To come into a state of existence or activity comparable to life. Const. to, into.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 26482. All quickens [a]gain his first penance þat tint was.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 471. Þat þer quikken no cloude bifore þe cler sunne.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 474. Looke how that fir of smale gleedes that been almoost dede vnder asshen wollen quike agayn.
1435. Misyn, Fire of Love, 81. Þe self sawle … qwhykkynand to heuenly likyng.
1470. Paston Lett., No. 648, II. 406. The mater qwykennythe bothe ffor yowe and yowres.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 203. At this time also, the warre began to quicken in Guyan.
1821. Shelley, False Laurels & True, 11. The hopes that quicken … Are flowers that wither.
1829. I. Taylor, Enthus., vi. 177. Countries that were quickening into freedom.
a. 1881. Rossetti, House of Life, ii. At her heart Love lay Quickening in darkness.
b. To grow bright.
1712–4. Pope, Rape Lock, I. 144. Sees … keener lightnings quicken in her eyes.
1859. Tennyson, Geraint & Enid, 535. The pale and bloodless east began To quicken to the sun.
1885. Bret Harte, Maruja, i. Meanwhile the light [of day] quickened.
8. To become faster, to be accelerated.
1805. [see QUICKENING ppl. a.].
1857. W. Smith, Thorndale, III. iv. 226. His step quickened, his countenance lighted up with joy.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xxx. Tess’s breath quickened.
