come alive

1. 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]

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

Idioms and Phrases

Also, come to life .