From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcome alivecome alivea) INTERESTINGif a subject or event comes alive, it becomes interesting and seems real Hopefully, we can make history come alive for the children. b) HAPPYINTERESTEDif someone comes alive, they suddenly become happy and interested in what is happening She only came alive when she sat down at the piano. c) BUSY PLACEif a town, city etc comes alive, it becomes busy seaside resorts that come alive in the summer → alive
Examples from the Corpus
come alive• There were voices outside as the train came alive.• Hodges' stories make history come alive.• In Great Groups, talent comes alive.• The streets come alive after dark.• Jane Austen's ironies came alive, and the ellipses in Virginia Woolf's prose started to speak.• Cabral looks at the clay and her face comes alive as she begins to shape it.• As I began to research the background and archaeology of those places, the book came alive in a different way.• And the defense came alive in the second half.• For most people such details might be rather boring, but Robertson makes the narrative come alive through the personalities.• The walls come alive with foaming beer and music surrounds them as the audience journeys upward in a can of Guinness.• By night, the Landing comes alive with jazz and the blues. 