come to life

present singular third person comes to life · participle present coming to life · past came to life

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo become alive, to be given life; to be brought into existence.

   We want to know exactly how the first cells came to life on earth.

   1999, Lee Smolin, New York Times, We All Came From Mars

   1 more example

   I don't think of Hobbes as a doll that miraculously comes to life when Calvin's around. Neither do I think of Hobbes as the product of Calvin's imagination... Hobbes is more about the subjective nature of reality than about dolls coming to life.

   1995, Bill Watterson, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, page 22

2. idiomaticintransitiveTo appear as if alive.

   The CGI-generated characters came to life through an incredible display of a cutting-edge 3D technology.

3. idiomaticintransitiveTo start to become energetic.

   It was only after Yakubu sliced another chance into the side netting, a bad miss by the former Everton striker, that Norwich came to life.

   2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport