Definition of "quickening" []

• Present participle of quicken. (verb)
• The action of bringing someone or something to life. (noun)
• The first noticable movements of a foetus during pregnancy, or the period when this occurs. (noun)
• Stimulation, excitement (of a feeling, emotion etc.). (noun)

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• "Down through the sere leaves comes the first chestnut; others follow in quickening commotion, beginning their long pilgrimage to perfection; a hundred years hence they will stand in bridal white against the blue."
• "THERE is a certain quickening of everything in these fall days,"
• "Death, so far from preventing quickening, is the necessary prelude and prognostication of it, just as the seed "is not quickened" into a new sprout with increased produce, "except it die" (except a dissolution of its previous organization takes place)."