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See also: Lively



Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċ (living, lively, long-lived, necessary to life, vital), equivalent to life +‎ -ly. Cognate with Scots lively, lifely (of or pertaining to life, vital, living, life-like).

Alternative forms[edit]


lively (comparative livelier, superlative liveliest)

  1. Full of life; energetic.
    • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes
      But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haste, / With youthful steps? Much livelier than erewhile / He seems.
      But with the lively Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers Pavlyuchenko and Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.
  2. Bright; vivid; glowing; strong; vigorous.
    • 1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light
    • 1688, Robert South, Sacramental Preparation: Set forth in a Sermon on Matthew 5, 12.
      His faith must be not only living, but lively too.
  3. (archaic) Endowed with or manifesting life; living.
    • c. 1600, Philemon Holland
      chaplets of gold and silver resembling lively flowers and leaves
  4. (archaic) Representing life; lifelike.
  5. (archaic) Airy; animated; spirited.
  6. (of beer) Fizzy; foamy; tending to produce a large head in the glass.
Usage notes[edit]
  • Nouns to which "lively" is often applied: person, character, lady, woman, man, audience, personality, art, guide, activity, game, lesson, introduction, discussion, debate, writing, image, town, city, village, etc.
Derived terms[edit]


lively (plural livelies)

  1. (nautical) Term of address.

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old English līflīċe.


lively (comparative more lively, superlative most lively)

  1. (obsolete) In a lifelike manner.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.i:
      Him to a dainty flowre she did transmew, / Which in that cloth was wrought, as if it liuely grew.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.220-1:
      the Painter Protogenes [] having perfected the image of a wearie and panting dog, [] but being unable, as he desired, lively to represent the drivel or slaver of his mouth, vexed against his owne worke, took his spunge, and moist as it was with divers colours, threw it at the picture [].
  2. Vibrantly, vividly.