Word.ws English Dictionary

liven up

liven up verb: to improve a person's mood by making them more energetic.

Verb

liven up (third-person singular simple present livens up, present participle livening up, simple past and past participle livened up)

  1. (transitive) To improve a person's mood by making them more energetic.
    • Darren looks down at the moment; let's try to liven him up.
  2. (intransitive) To become more happy, energetic or positive.
    • The party livened up after they brought out the cake.

Synonyms of liven up

22 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of liven up

third-person singular presentlivens up
present participlelivening up
past participlelivened up
pastlivened up

Questions about liven up

What does liven up mean?
Liven up means to improve a person's mood by making them more energetic.
What part of speech is liven up?
Liven up is a verb.
What is the past tense of liven up?
The past tense of liven up is livened up.

Words near liven up in the dictionary

  1. Livelsberger
  2. lively
  3. lively as a grig
  4. livelyhood
  5. liven
  6. liven up
  7. livened
  8. livened up
  9. livener
  10. liveners
  11. liveness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: liven up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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