\Quick"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {quickened}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Quickening}.] [AS. cwician. See {Quick}, a.]
1. To make alive; to vivify; to revive or resuscitate, as
   from death or an inanimate state; hence, to excite; to,
   stimulate; to incite.
         The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead.
                                               --Shak.
         Like a fruitful garden without an hedge, that
         quickens the appetite to enjoy so tempting a prize.
                                               -- South.
2. To make lively, active, or sprightly; to impart additional
   energy to; to stimulate; to make quick or rapid; to
   hasten; to accelerate; as, to quicken one's steps or
   thoughts; to quicken one's departure or speed.
3. (Shipbuilding) To shorten the radius of (a curve); to make
   (a curve) sharper; as, to quicken the sheer, that is, to
   make its curve more pronounced.
Syn: To revive; resuscitate; animate; reinvigorate; vivify;
     refresh; stimulate; sharpen; incite; hasten; accelerate;
     expedite; dispatch; speed.

\Quick"en\, v. i.
1. To come to life; to become alive; to become vivified or
   enlivened; hence, to exhibit signs of life; to move, as
   the fetus in the womb.
         The heart is the first part that quickens, and the
         last that dies.                       -- Ray.
         And keener lightnings quicken in her eye. --Pope.
         When the pale and bloodless east began To quicken to
         the sun.                              --Tennyson.
2. To move with rapidity or activity; to become accelerated;
   as, his pulse quickened.