perk up

present singular third person perks up · participle present perking up · participle past perked up · past perked up

1. intransitiveTo become more upright

   His ears perked up when he heard there would be ice cream.

   1 more example

   The Lion bowed down his head and whispered something to Puzzle [the donkey] at which his long ears went down; but then he said something else at which the ears perked up again.

   1956, C. S. Lewis, chapter 16, in The Last Battle, New York: Macmillan

   Synonyms: rise, stick up

2. intransitiveTo become more lively or enthusiastic.

   1 more example

   In hopes the coming Scenes your Mirth will raise To you, the Iust pretenders to the Bays; The Poet humbly thus a Reverence pays And you, the Contraries, that hate the Pains Of Labour’d Sense, or of Improving Brains: That feel the Lashes in a well-writ Play, He bids perk up and smile, the Satyr sleeps to Day.

   1694, Thomas D’Urfey, The Comical History of Don Quixote, London: Samuel Briscoe, Prologue

   Synonyms: cheer up, get it up

3. transitiveTo cause to be more upright, straighten up.

   In lifting her arms to perk up the bow at her throat, she knocked a hat off the bracket.

   1870, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 15, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston: Roberts Brothers, page 309

   1 more example

   For five minutes Pollyanna worked swiftly, deftly, combing a refractory curl into fluffiness, perking up a drooping ruffle at the neck, or shaking a pillow into plumpness so that the head might have a better pose. Meanwhile the sick woman, frowning prodigiously, and openly scoffing at the whole procedure, was, in spite of herself, beginning to tingle with a feeling perilously near to excitement.

   1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC

   Synonyms: right, straighten

4. transitiveto cause to be more lively or enthusiastic.

   Here the women perked up their ears; and were all silent attention.

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter VI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume V, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 80

   3 more examples

   […] ’tis better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perk’d up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow.

   c. 1612, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act II, Scene 3

   When this fair Traveller, with heat opprest, And the days Toyls, here laid him down to rest Where the soft Grass, and the thick Trees, displaid A flowry Couch, and a cool Arbour made About him round the grassy spires (in hope To gain a kisse) their verdant heads perk’d up.

   1651, Girolamo Preti, translated by Edward Sherburne, Poems and Translations Amorous, Lusory, Morall, Divine, London: Thomas Dring, translation of Salmacis, page 12

   “I’ve been on the water wagon myself. But a drink might perk me up.”

   1963, Zane Grey, chapter 12, in Boulder Dam, Roslyn, New York: Walter J. Black

   Synonyms: elate, hearten, beatify, enrapture, begladden, blissen, bright, cheer

5. intransitiveobsoleteTo exalt oneself, take on a higher status or position.

   […] they should not give heed to Women, that would be perking up in matters of Worshiping God.

   1683, John Bunyan, A Case of Conscience Resolved, London: Benjamin Alsop, page 36

   1 more example

   […] there is too frequently Combinations made amongst the rest, to cross and quash whatever they shall propose, be it never so just, and reasonable, and nothing alledged for it, but that they are mean, proud, busie people, and will perk up too much above their Betters, if they be not thus mortified, and kept under […]

   1693, Edmund Bohun, The Justice of Peace, His Calling and Qualifications, London: T. Salusbury, Preface

   Synonyms: aggrandize, rise