/brisk/definition

brisk

-) Verb.

-) Pronunciation: brɪsk.

-) Etymology: from the adjective BRISK.

-) Preterite tense, preterite participle: brisked. 

-) Present participle: brisking.

-) Transitively: 1. To render (an animated being) brisk.

-) The adverb up, found adjunctively, reinforces pleonastically the denotation of activity.

-) Synonyms: to quicken, bestir.

-) Antonyms: to mope, torporize, torpefy, numb.

-) Translation: attivizzare, dinamizzare, in Italian; dynamiser, in French; dinamizar, in Spanish.

A cup of wine that brisks up me.

George Thornbury… Art and Nature 1856

Next morning Laurance woke him at eight, and Dan grumbled about getting up, although he was assured that he had slept the clock round. However a cold bath soon brisked him up, and he came down to the sitting-room with an excellent appetite for breakfast.

Fergus Hume… The Mystery Queen 1912

-) 2. To make (wind, fire, etc) brisk.

Despite an unseasonable summer cold front that had brisked the air, the forge had warmed his shop more than comfortably.

Harold Moon… The Leah Shadow

-) 3. (Of someone) to effect (something) with briskness.

Modestine brisked up her pace for perhaps three steps, and then relapsed into her former minuet.

Stevenson… Travels with a Donkey 1879

-) 4. To translocate, move or transfer (something or someone) with briskness.

I bought two sandwhiches and a macchiato, a waiter brisked them onto the marble magenta countertop.

Ron Dakron… Infra

-) Intransitively: 1. (Of someone) to become brisk; to behave or move briskly; to change from one state of dullness to one of briskness, promptness, activity, etc.; --this intransitive use is for the reflexive one. The adverb up, as in the transitive use, reinforces pleonastically the denotation of activity.

-) Synonyms: to bustle, bestir.

-) Antonyms: to laze, dull.

-) Translation: activarse, or dinamizarse, in Spanish; attivarsi, or dinamizzarsi, in Italian; s’activer, in French.

Our horses brisked up wonderfully, the grey forgot that he was bearing so fat a man as Mr. Briggs, the chestnut was oblivious of his packs, and all at a swinging canter came up to the farm door.

Sabine Baring-Gould… Iceland 1863

See how every one brisks up when a country dance is announced, and how much at home every one appears directly to be!

Talbot Gwynne… The School… 1865

"Well, I can't understand all that," said […] John, with rueful sulkiness, from which he brisked up to ask […]

William Howells… Questionable Shapes

As I brisked out of bed the following morning at half-after six, I could not but wonder rather nervously what the day might have […] for me.

Harry Wilson… Ruggles… 1915

-) 2. (Of a fact, action, thing, etc.) to become brisk.

-) Antonym: to dull.

Things have been dull all the fall, but I thought they'd brisk up come winter. They haven't.

Howells… The Rise of Silas Lapham

-) 3. (Of wind, fire, etc.) to become brisk.

-) Antonyms: to dull, weaken.

The wind brisked up to fifteen knots.

Philip Caputo… The Voyage 2009

-) English words derived from brisk: brisk (adj.), brisken, briskening, briskish, briskly, briskness, brisky, brisked, brisking