Definition of "lively"

But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haſt, / With youthful ſteps? much livelier then e're while / He ſeems.

1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 85, lines 452–455

[...] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of railway viaducts, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 77

Since sick people were apt to be present, he could not always depend on a lively young crowd in the same ward with him, and the entertainment was not always good.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 168

But with the lively [Giovani] Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers [Roman] Pavlyuchenko and [Jermain] Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.

2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3 – 1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 27 November 2018

The colours of the prism are manifestly more full, intense, and lively that those of natural bodies.

1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light

His faith must be not only living, but lively too.

1688, Robert South, Sacramental Preparation: Set forth in a Sermon on Matthew 5, 12.

chaplets of gold and silver resembling lively flowers and leaves

c. 1600, Philemon Holland

I spied the lively picture of my father.

1632, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Fatal Dowry

From grave to gay, from lively to ſevere, [...]

1734, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle IV, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], page 80, line 775

Speak the word, my livelies, and I'll pilot her in.

1846, Herman Melville, Typee

Him to a dainty flowre she did transmew, / Which in that cloth was wrought, as if it liuely grew.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

the Painter Protogenes […] having perfected the image of a wearie and panting dog, […] but being unable, as he desired, lively to represent the drivel or slaver of his mouth, vexed against his owne worke, took his spunge, and moist as it was with divers colours, threw it at the picture […].

1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]