Vital quote grand Frenchman brought up (9)
I believe the answer is:
energetic
'vital' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'quote grand frenchman brought up' is the wordplay.
'quote' becomes 'cite' (synonyms).
'grand' becomes 'g' (G is short for grand as in a thousand).
'frenchman' becomes 'rene' (common French name).
'brought up' says the letters should be written backwards (in a down clue, letters go up).
'cite'+'g'+'rene'='citegrene'
'citegrene' in reverse letter order is 'ENERGETIC'.
(Other definitions for energetic that I've seen before include "It's vital" , "Brisk" , "Forceful, vigorous" , "Lively, dynamic" , "Involving great activity" .)