restore

restore 1 *renew, refresh, rejuvenate, renovate, refurbish

Analogous words: save, reclaim, redeem, *rescue: reform, revise, amend (see CORRECT vb): *recover, regain, retrieve, recoup, recruit

2 Restore, revive, revivify, resuscitate can all mean to regain or cause to regain signs of life and vigor.

Restore (see also RENEW) implies a return to consciousness, to health, or to vigor often through the use of remedies or of treatments

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it took many months to restore him to health

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gave her aromatic spirits of ammonia to restore her to consciousness

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Revive, when used in reference to a person, implies recovery from a deathlike state (as stupor or a faint or shock); it carries a stronger suggestion of apparent death in the victim and a less positive suggestion of restored health and vigor than does restore

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slowly revived from the effects of shock

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revived her by throwing water on her face

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But the term is often applied to spirits or to feelings that are depressed, to plants that seem withering, to states, arts, industries, or fashions that are not flourishing and implies a return to a prior state (as of animation, freshness, or activity)

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the flowers have been revived by the shower

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ambitious hopes which had seemed to be extinguished, had revived in his bosom— Macaulay

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Revivify differs from revive in suggesting an adding of new life and in not carrying so strong a suggestion of prior loss or depletion of vital power; hence, it is applicable to normal persons or to their powers

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a good night's sleep revivifies every healthy person

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cessation in his lovemaking had revivified her love— Hardy

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The term is also applicable to something that tends to become exhausted of interest through long usage or familiarity and then suggests a freshening or a vitalizing from a new source

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being a true poet, he was able ... to revivify them [old, much-used words] as poetic agents— Day Lewis

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tradi-tion is dead; our task is to revivify life that has passed away— Buchan

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Resuscitate implies commonly a restoration to consciousness, but in comparison with revive it usually also implies a condition that is serious and that requires arduous efforts to correct or relieve

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uncertain of success in resuscitating the boy they had taken from the water

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Especially in extended use it can suggest a bringing again to a quick or vital state of someone or something in which life appears to be extinct

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resuscitate an old interest

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it was Delia's turn to be silent. The past was too overwhelmingly resuscitated in Charlotte's words— Wharton

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Analogous words: *cure, heal, remedy: arouse, rouse, rally, *stir