quickening (n.)

  1. the process of showing signs of life; the quickening of seed that will become ripe grain'

  2. the stage of pregnancy at which the mother first feels the movements of the fetus

  3. the act of accelerating; increasing the speed

    [ Syn: acceleration , speedup ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.