_thrive_

_thrive_

Verb.

Pronunciation: θraɪv.

Etymology: Middle English thriven (= to grasp oneself).

Preterite tense: throve (θrəʊv), or thrived (θraɪvd).

Preterite participle: thriven (ˈθrɪv(ə)n), or thrived (θraɪvd).

Present participle: thriving.

Intransitively: 1. (Of a plant, of a person or another animal) to develop or grow well; to increase in health, size, etc.

Translation: se développer sainement, in French; desarrollarse sanamente, in Spanish; svilupparsi in modo sano, in Italian.

Synonyms: to flourish, prosper, batten.

"Mrs. Blake had a poor little puny chicken, which she thought was so sickly as not to be worth rearing; she therefore threw it to the cat, supposing that she would instantly make an end of its misery. But puss greeted it as if it were a kitten; she purred over it, and nursed it with the greatest tenderness. The chicken throve, the cat became fonder of it every day.

Mary Howitt… A treasury of old favourite tales

The Indians have no grapes, and the Chinese have not many, but both abound in other fruits, though the pomegranate thrives better in India than in China.

Robert Kerr… Voyages and Travels, Vol. I

As wheat does not thrive in this country it is little sown

Robert Kerr… Voyages and Travels, Vol. I

The road ascends a barren, rocky country, where nothing but the prickly pear can thrive, and with this the horizon was covered.

Edward Penny… Customs and society of Mexico 1824

What garden will thrive if every plant in it must be dug up every day, and set out in a better place?

Francis Parkman… Vassall Morton 1856

"I don't know why you should be so fierce against the climate. By your look, you seem to thrive in it."

Francis Parkman… Vassall Morton 1856

I had by this time cleared a spot of ground on one side of my grotto, by burning up the timber and underwood which had covered it: this I enclosed, and within that enclosure I raised my aviary, and my poultry thrived very well there, seemed to like their habitation, and grew very fat.

Robert Paltock… Adventures of Peter Wilkins 1864

-) With the preposition on, or upon + a noun, by which the food is designated:

[…] our animals on the whole, have thriven on the food they have had.

Charles Sturt… Two expeditions 1833

Their food is chiefly wild parsley and celery, with purslain, sea-kelp, and prickly pears, upon which latter vegetable they thrive wonderfully, a great quantity of it being usually found on the hillsides near the shore wherever the animal itself is discovered.

Edgar Poe… The Narrative of Arthur Gordon 1838

The goat, also, he says, thrives on the meadow-sweet, and water-hemlock, plants which are injurious to cattle.

Charles Lyell… Principles of geology 1854

The people live well; and the merchants are large and portly men, who evidently thrive upon meat and rice.

Richard Burton… The Land of Midian, 1879

2. (Of a person or people): a. To obtain gradually augmentation of wealth; to increase in goods; to become financially prosperous by degrees. b. To become gradually prosperous in any business; to be successful by degrees.

Translation: prospérer, in French; prosperar, in Spanish; prosperare, in Italian.

Synonym: prosper.

The statute was called in Galloway and Dumfries-shire, by those who had thriven upon the contraband trade, 'the burning and starving act.'

Walter Scott… Guy Mannering 1815

No man throve that was connected with letters, unless he were also connected with their trade and merchandise, and, like Richardson, could print as well as write books.

John Forster… The life… of Oliver Goldsmith 1848

-) With the preposition on + a noun, by which the means are designated.

Words derived from THRIVE: thriveless, thriven, thriver, thriving, thrivingly, thrivingness, thrift, thriftful, thriftily, thriftiness, thriftlessly, thriftlessness, thrifty, unthriving, unthrivingly, unthrivingness.