come alive

Idioms  

1. Also, come to life.

2. Become vigorous or lively. For example, It took some fast rhythms to make the dancers come alive , or As soon as he mentioned ice cream, the children came to life . The adjective alive has been used in the sense of “vivacious” since the 1700s. Also, the variant originally (late 1600s) meant “to recover from a faint or apparent death.” [ Colloquial ; first half of 1900s]

3. Appear real or believable, as in It's really hard to make this prose come to life . Also see look alive .

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Example Sentences

"It's the magical stage, when the clothes start to come alive," she said, her blue eyes lighting up her face framed by long dark hair.

From Barron's • Feb. 18, 2026

Read more: Is a new OpenAI deal what Amazon’s stock needs to finally come alive?

From MarketWatch • Dec. 30, 2025

In “Toy Story,” children’s playthings come alive and even kind of fly.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 18, 2025

Before the fire, Lucy’s Place would come alive in the morning.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 28, 2025

Manderley had come alive in a fashion I would not have believed possible.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier