perk up

Verb

perk up (third-person singular simple present perks up, present participle perking up, simple past and past participle perked up)

1. (intransitive) To become more upright
   • His ears perked up when he heard there would be ice cream.
   • The Lion bowed down his head and whispered something to Puzzle [the donkey] at which his long ears went down; but then he said something else at which the ears perked up again.1956, C. S. Lewis, chapter 16, in The Last Battle, New York: Macmillan

   Synonyms:

   rise, stick up

2. (intransitive) To become more lively or enthusiastic.
   • In hopes the coming Scenes your Mirth will raise
     To you, the Iust pretenders to the Bays;
     The Poet humbly thus a Reverence pays
     And you, the Contraries, that hate the Pains
     Of Labour’d Sense, or of Improving Brains:
     That feel the Lashes in a well-writ Play,
     He bids perk up and smile, the Satyr...1694, Thomas D’Urfey, The Comical History of Don Quixote, London: Samuel Briscoe, Prologue

   Synonyms:

   cheer up, get it up

3. (transitive) To cause to be more upright, straighten up.
   • For five minutes Pollyanna worked swiftly, deftly, combing a refractory curl into fluffiness, perking up a drooping ruffle at the neck, or shaking a pillow into plumpness so that the head might have a better pose. Meanwhile the sick woman, frowning prodigiously, and openly scoffing at the whole...1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC
   • In lifting her arms to perk up the bow at her throat, she knocked a hat off the bracket.1870, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 15, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston: Roberts Brothers, page 309

   Synonyms:

   right, straighten

4. (transitive) to cause to be more lively or enthusiastic.
   • […] ’tis better to be lowly born,
     And range with humble livers in content,
     Than to be perk’d up in a glistering grief,
     And wear a golden sorrow.c. 1612, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act II, Scene 3
   • When this fair Traveller, with heat opprest,
     And the days Toyls, here laid him down to rest
     Where the soft Grass, and the thick Trees, displaid
     A flowry Couch, and a cool Arbour made
     About him round the grassy spires (in hope
     To gain a kisse) their verdant heads perk’d up.1651, Girolamo Preti, translated by Edward Sherburne, Poems and Translations Amorous, Lusory, Morall, Divine, London: Thomas Dring, translation of Salmacis, page 12

   Synonyms:

   elate, hearten, beatify, enrapture, begladden, blissen, bright, cheer, fetch, cheer up

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To exalt oneself, take on a higher status or position.
   • […] they should not give heed to Women, that would be perking up in matters of Worshiping God.1683, John Bunyan, A Case of Conscience Resolved, London: Benjamin Alsop, page 36
   • […] there is too frequently Combinations made amongst the rest, to cross and quash whatever they shall propose, be it never so just, and reasonable, and nothing alledged for it, but that they are mean, proud, busie people, and will perk up too much above their Betters, if they be not thus...1693, Edmund Bohun, The Justice of Peace, His Calling and Qualifications, London: T. Salusbury, Preface

   Synonyms:

   aggrandize, rise