come to life

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come to life (third-person singular simple present comes to life, present participle coming to life, simple past came to life, past participle come to life)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) to bring back to life; revitalize, revive, resurrect
2. (intransitive, idiomatic) to become alive; to be brought into existence
   • 1999, Lee Smolin, New York Times, We All Came From Mars:

     We want to know exactly how the first cells came to life on earth.

3. (intransitive, idiomatic) to appear as if alive

   The CGI-generated characters came to life through an incredible display of a cutting-edge 3D technology.

4. (intransitive, idiomatic) to start to become energetic.
   • 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport‎:

     It was only after Yakubu sliced another chance into the side netting, a bad miss by the former Everton striker, that Norwich came to life.