thrive
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /θɹaɪv/
rhymes: -aɪv
Forms: form: thrives
form: thriving
form: throve
form: thrived
form: thriven
form: thrived
Etymology: From Middle English thryven, thriven, from Old Norse þrífa (“to seize, grasp, take hold, prosper”), from Proto-Germanic *þrībaną (“to seize, prosper”), from Proto-Indo-European *trep-, *terp- (“to satisfy, enjoy”). Cognate with Swedish trivas, Danish trives, Norwegian Bokmål trives.
Senses: examples: text: Not all animals thrive well in captivity.
text: to thrive upon hard work
text: “It seems to me, reverend father,” said the knight, “that the small morsels which you eat, together with this holy, but somewhat thin beverage, have thriven with you marvellously.”
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
text: So, on I went. I think I never saw / Such starved ignoble nature; nothing throve: / For flowers - as well expect a cedar grove!
ref: 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section X:
text: Dwarves had not passed that way for many years, but Gandalf had, and he knew how evil and danger had grown and thriven in the Wild, since the dragons had driven men from the lands, and the goblins had spread in secret after the battle of the Mines of Moria.
ref: 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 4, in The Hobbit:
text: The growing things jumbled themselves together into a dense thicket; so tensely earnest were things about growing in Skedans that everything linked with everything else, hurrying to grow to the limit of its own capacity; weeds and weaklings alike throve in the rich moistness.
ref: 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 3, in Klee Wyck:
text: Despite a thriving global computer security industry that is projected to reach $79 billion in revenues next year, and the fact that in 2002 Microsoft itself began an intense corporatewide effort to improve the security of its software, Internet security has continued to deteriorate globally.
ref: 2009 February 15, John Markoff, “Do We Need a New Internet?”, in The New York Times:
glosses: To grow or increase stature; to grow vigorously or luxuriantly, to flourish.
examples: text: Since expanding in June, the business has really thrived.
text: […] Deliver me the key.
Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:
text: On the Chickahominy, the Hazelwood brothers' fish house at Hicks Island and the Menzel brothers' fish house near the old shipyard thrived by serving local and distant markets. As late as 1977, a Publick Observer article boasted, "If you are served turtle soup in Atlanta or catfish in Ft. Wayne, Ind., chances are good that the main ingredients came from the waters of the James or the Chickahominy."
ref: 2009, Sara E. Lewis, James City County, page 77:
text: Though they obviously realized that these episodes were part of something wonderful and important and lasting, the writers and producers couldn’t have imagined that 20 years later “Treehouse Of Horror” wouldn’t just survive; it’d thrive as one of the most talked-about and watched episodes of every season of The Simpsons.
ref: 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in The A.V. Club:
text: And, reader, the further you take this analogy the more beautifully it works: my anxiety disorder thrives on irrational scaremongery and paranoia, it often demands booze (but should not be given alcohol because it only makes it worse) and just when you think you have got rid of it for good, it pops up again.
ref: 2018, Natasha Devon, A Beginner's Guide to Being Mental: An A-Z, →ISBN:
glosses: To increase in wealth or success; to prosper, be profitable.
Derived terms: failure to thrive