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quicks

Verb
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Moves or enlivens; gives life or motion to something. This is an archaic or literary verb form.

Detailed Definition
In this poem, the word suggests a force that animates or stirs the world. Hardy uses an older literary sense of quicken, which is less common in modern reading than the everyday verb forms readers usually know.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Which quicks the world—maybe” uses quicks in the sense of makes living or enlivens; “The rain quicks the buried seed” shows life stirred into growth; “One bell-note quicks the silent street” gives the verb an energetic, awakening force; “Her question quicks the room, and every face turns” demonstrates how speech can animate a scene
Additional Notes
The form “quicks” in “Which quicks the world—maybe” is an archaic literary usage that many readers would not know at once.; Found in the poem, At An Inn by Thomas Hardy
Also Known As
swift rapid nimble hasty
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