quicken

/ˈkwɪkən/

To give life to; to animate, make alive, revive.

To come back to life, receive life.

To take on a state of activity or vigour comparable to life; to be roused, excited.

Of a pregnant woman: to first feel the movements of the foetus, or reach the stage of pregnancy at which this takes place; of a foetus: to begin to move.

To make quicker; to hasten, speed up.

To become faster.

My heartbeat quickened when I heard him approach.

To shorten the radius of (a curve); to make (a curve) sharper.

to quicken the sheer, that is, to make its curve more pronounced