thrive

present singular third person thrives · participle present thriving · past uncommon throve · past thrived · participle past uncommon thriven · participle past thrived

1. intransitiveTo grow or increase stature; to grow vigorously or luxuriantly; to enjoy a state of excellent health and well-being; to flourish.

   to thrive upon hard work

   5 more examples

   Not all animals thrive well in captivity.

   “It seems to me, reverend father,” said the knight, “that the small morsels which you eat, together with this holy, but somewhat thin beverage, have thriven with you marvellously.”

   1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC

   So, on I went. I think I never saw / Such starved ignoble nature; nothing throve: / For flowers - as well expect a cedar grove!

   1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section X

   Dwarves had not passed that way for many years, but Gandalf had, and he knew how evil and danger had grown and thriven in the Wild, since the dragons had driven men from the lands, and the goblins had spread in secret after the battle of the Mines of Moria.

   1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 4, in The Hobbit

   The growing things jumbled themselves together into a dense thicket; so tensely earnest were things about growing in Skedans that everything linked with everything else, hurrying to grow to the limit of its own capacity; weeds and weaklings alike throve in the rich moistness.

   1941, Emily Carr, chapter 3, in Klee Wyck

2. intransitiveTo increase in wealth or success; to prosper, be profitable.

   Since expanding in June, the business has really thrived.

   4 more examples

   […] Deliver me the key. Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]

   On the Chickahominy, the Hazelwood brothers' fish house at Hicks Island and the Menzel brothers' fish house near the old shipyard thrived by serving local and distant markets. As late as 1977, a Publick Observer article boasted, "If you are served turtle soup in Atlanta or catfish in Ft. Wayne, Ind., chances are good that the main ingredients came from the waters of the James or the Chickahominy."

   2009, Sara E. Lewis, James City County, page 77

   Though they obviously realized that these episodes were part of something wonderful and important and lasting, the writers and producers couldn’t have imagined that 20 years later “Treehouse Of Horror” wouldn’t just survive; it’d thrive as one of the most talked-about and watched episodes of every season of The Simpsons.

   2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2012

   And, reader, the further you take this analogy the more beautifully it works: my anxiety disorder thrives on irrational scaremongery and paranoia, it often demands booze (but should not be given alcohol because it only makes it worse) and just when you think you have got rid of it for good, it pops up again.

   2018, Natasha Devon, A Beginner's Guide to Being Mental: An A-Z, →ISBN