perk up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: perks up
form: perking up
form: perked up
form: perked up
Senses: examples: text: His ears perked up when he heard there would be ice cream.
text: 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.
ref: 1956, C. S. Lewis, chapter 16, in The Last Battle, New York: Macmillan:
synonyms: rise
stick up
glosses: To become more upright
examples: text: 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 sleeps to Day.
ref: 1694, Thomas D’Urfey, The Comical History of Don Quixote, London: Samuel Briscoe, Prologue:
synonyms: cheer up
get it up
glosses: to become more lively or enthusiastic.
examples: text: 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 procedure, was, in spite of herself, beginning to tingle with a feeling perilously near to excitement.
ref: 1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC:
text: In lifting her arms to perk up the bow at her throat, she knocked a hat off the bracket.
ref: 1870, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 15, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston: Roberts Brothers, page 309:
synonyms: right
straighten
glosses: To cause to be more upright, straighten up.
examples: text: […] ’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.
ref: c. 1612, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act II, Scene 3:
text: 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.
ref: 1651, Girolamo Preti, translated by Edward Sherburne, Poems and Translations Amorous, Lusory, Morall, Divine, London: Thomas Dring, translation of Salmacis, page 12:
text: Here the women perked up their ears; and were all silent attention.
ref: 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter VI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume V, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC, page 80:
text: “I’ve been on the water wagon myself. But a drink might perk me up.”
ref: 1963, Zane Grey, chapter 12, in Boulder Dam, Roslyn, New York: Walter J. Black:
synonyms: word: elate
word: hearten
word: beatify
word: begladden
word: blissen
word: bright
word: cheer
word: cheer up
word: content
word: delight
word: elate
word: enbliss
word: exhilarate
word: fain
word: gay
word: gladden
word: gladden someone's heart
word: gratify
word: happify
word: happy
word: hearten
word: jollify
word: laetificate
word: light up
word: make someone's day
word: perk up
word: please
word: raise someone's spirits
word: rejoice
word: turn the frown upside down
word: upcheer
word: warm someone's heart
word: warm the cockles of someone's heart
glosses: to cause to be more lively or enthusiastic.
examples: text: […] they should not give heed to Women, that would be perking up in matters of Worshiping God.
ref: 1683, John Bunyan, A Case of Conscience Resolved, London: Benjamin Alsop, page 36:
text: […] 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 mortified, and kept under […]
ref: 1693, Edmund Bohun, The Justice of Peace, His Calling and Qualifications, London: T. Salusbury, Preface:
synonyms: aggrandize
rise
glosses: To exalt oneself, take on a higher status or position.
Derived terms: perk up one's ears
Related terms: perk
perky