lively

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈlaɪvli/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

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

• lifely (obsolete)

Adjective

lively (comparative livelier, superlative liveliest)

1. Full of life; energetic.
   • 2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers”, BBC Sport:

     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. (of beer) fizzy; foamy; tending to produce a large head in the glass

Usage notes

• 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

• look lively

Translations

full of life

• Catalan: vivaç (ca) m and f
• Dutch: levendig (nl)
• Finnish: eläväinen (fi)
• French: animé (fr) m, animée (fr) f
• German: lebhaft (de)
• Hungarian: eleven (hu), élénk (hu)
• Irish: cróga (ga), crógach (ga), cróganta (ga)
• Italian: vivace (it) m and f, brioso (it) m, briosa (it) f

• Old Church Slavonic: живъ (živŭ)
• Polish: żywy m
• Portuguese: vivaz (pt) m and f
• Scottish Gaelic: aighearach (gd), beò (gd)
• Slovene: živahen
• Swedish: livlig (sv)
• Welsh: byw (cy)

Noun

lively (plural livelies)

1. (nautical) Term of address.
   • Herman Melville, Typee

     Speak the word, my livelies, and I'll pilot her in.

Etymology 2

Old English līflīċe.

Adverb

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.

Anagrams

• evilly
• vilely