perk up

The Lion bowed down his head and whispered something to Puzzle [the donkey] at which his long ears went down; but then he said something else at which the ears perked up again.

To you, the Iust pretenders to the Bays;

The Poet humbly thus a Reverence pays

And you, the Contraries, that hate the Pains

Of Labour’d Sense, or of Improving Brains:

That feel the Lashes in a well-writ Play,

He bids perk up and smile, the Satyr sleeps to Day.

For five minutes Pollyanna worked swiftly, deftly, combing a refractory curl into fluffiness, perking up a drooping ruffle at the neck, or shaking a pillow into plumpness so that the head might have a better pose. Meanwhile the sick woman, frowning prodigiously, and openly scoffing at the whole procedure, was, in spite of herself, beginning to tingle with a feeling perilously near to excitement.

[…] ’tis better to be lowly born,

And range with humble livers in content,

Than to be perk’d up in a glistering grief,

And wear a golden sorrow.

[…] they should not give heed to Women, that would be perking up in matters of Worshiping God.