Quicken, animate, enliven, vivify can mean to make alive or lively, but the words diverge more or less widely in their implications.
Quicken stresses either the renewal of life, especially of suspended life or growth, or the rousing of what is inert into fullness of activity. Sometimes the rekindled life is physical but more often it is spiritual, intellectual, or imaginative.
Animate (compare animated under LIVING ) (compare animated under LIVELY ) emphasizes the imparting of vitality or of motion and activity or the giving of liveliness or of the appearance of life to something previously deficient in or lacking such a quality.
Enliven suggests a stimulating influence that kindles, exalts, or brightens; it therefore presupposes dullness, depression, or torpidity, in the thing affected.
Vivify sometimes, like quicken, implies the renewal of life and at other times, like animate, implies the giving of the appearance of life. In each case it usually also suggests a freshening or energizing effect and implies vitality more often than activity or motion.