Perk up

His ears perked up when he heard there would be ice cream.

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.

In hopes the coming Scenes your Mirth will raise 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.

In lifting her arms to perk up the bow at her throat, she knocked a hat off the bracket.

[…] ’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.

When this fair Traveller, with heat opprest, And the days Toyls, here laid him down to rest Where the soft Grass, and the thick Trees, displaid A flowry Couch, and a cool Arbour made About him round the grassy spires (in hope To gain a kisse) their verdant heads perk’d up.

Here the women perked up their ears; and were all silent attention.

“I’ve been on the water wagon myself. But a drink might perk me up.”

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