quicken

C2+ Topic:Cause, Change & Process

US /ˈkwɪkən/ UK /ˈkwɪkən/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

verb
to make or become faster, or to come to life

Her pulse began to quicken as the deadline neared.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to make or become faster,... accelerate hasten speed expedite hurry animate enliven

Opposites

slow decelerate retard deaden

Word family

Derived forms quickenerquickening

Related forms quick quickly quickness

Etymology

From Middle English quikenen, from quik ('alive, quick') + -en; quick from Old English cwic ('living, alive'), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz.

cwic Old English *kwikwaz Proto-Germanic *gʷih₃wos Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Cause, Change & Process Actions & Processes Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# quicken

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈkwɪkən/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈkwɪkən/

## Meanings
1. to make or become faster, or to come to life

## Examples
- Her pulse began to quicken as the deadline neared.

## Synonyms
- accelerate
- hasten
- speed
- expedite
- hurry
- animate
- enliven

## Antonyms
- slow
- decelerate
- retard
- deaden

## Derived Forms
- quickener
- quickening

## Related Forms
- quick
- quickly
- quickness

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: cwic
- Root: *kwikwaz
- Root: *gʷih₃wos

## Etymology
From Middle English quikenen, from quik ('alive, quick') + -en; quick from Old English cwic ('living, alive'), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz.

## AI Etymology
Quicken is from Middle English quikenen, from quik ('alive, quick') + -en; quick from Old English cwic ('living, alive'), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz. Important recorded forms include cwic (Old English), *kwikwaz (Proto-Germanic), and *gʷih₃wos (Proto-Indo-European). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense remains close to that composition, with the parts narrowing into a single lexical item. In current use it covers to make or become faster, or to come to life. The wider family includes derived forms such as quickener and quickening and related words such as quick, quickly, and quickness.

## Topics
- Cause, Change & Process
- Actions & Processes
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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