Part 735

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.

Quick"en*er, n. One who, or that which, quickens.

Quick"en*ing, n. 1. The act or process of making or of becoming quick.

2. (Physiol.) The first motion of the fetus in the womb felt by the mother, occurring usually about the middle of the term of pregnancy. It has been popularly supposed to be due to the fetus becoming possessed of independent life.

Quick"ens (?), n. (Bot.) Quitch grass.

Quick"en tree` (?). [Probably from quick, and first applied to the aspen or some tree with quivering leaves; cf. G. quickenbaum, quizenbaum, quitschenbaum. Cf. Quitch grass.] (Bot.) The European rowan tree; -- called also quickbeam, and quickenbeam. See Rowan tree.

Quick"hatch` (?), n. [From the American Indian name.] (Zoˆl.) The wolverine.

Quick"lime (?), n. [See Quick, a.] (Chem.) Calcium oxide; unslacked lime; -- so called because when wet it develops great heat. See 4th Lime, 2.

Quick"ly, adv. Speedily; with haste or celerity; soon; without delay; quick.

Quick"ness, n. 1. The condition or quality of being quick or living; life. [Obs.]

Touch it with thy celestial quickness.

Herbert.

2. Activity; briskness; especially, rapidity of motion; speed; celerity; as, quickness of wit.

This deed . . . must send thee hence With fiery quickness.

Shak.

His mind had, indeed, great quickness and vigor.

Macaulay.

3. Acuteness of perception; keen sensibility.

Would not quickness of sensation be an inconvenience to an animal that must lie still ?