crystallize, v.
(ˈkrɪstəlaɪz)
[f. crystal + -ize: cf. mod.F. cristalliser (1680 in Hatzfeld).]
† 1. trans. To convert into crystal or ice; to make crystal. Obs.
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. Handy Crafts 185 When the Winter's keener breath began To crystallize the Baltike Ocean, To glaze the Lakes. 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §50 Some of our Chymicks facetiously affirm, that at the last fire all shall be crystallized and reverberated into glasse. 1798 S. Rogers Ep. to Friend Note, Wild Winter ministers his dread controul To cool and crystallize the nectared bowl. |
2. To cause to assume a crystalline form or structure, to form into crystals.
| 1664 Phil. Trans. I. 29 By dissolving them..and Crystallizing them. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 82 As Alum, Peter, &c. are crystallized out of a cooling liquor, in which, by boyling they have been dissolv'd. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 69 All salts that are capable of being crystallised are distinguishable by the figures of their crystals. 1876 Page Adv. Text Bk. Geol. ii. 47 Limestone crystallised by the heat of superincumbent lava. |
3. fig. To give a definite or concrete and permanent form or shape to (something of an undefined, vague, or floating character).
| 1663 Cowley Pindar. Odes, Muse iv, This shining Piece of Ice Which melts so soon away..Thy Verse does solidate and Crystallize. 1841 Myers Cath. Th. iii. §41. 157 Crystalising into permanent shapes the floating clouds of metaphor. 1875 Poste Gaius iv. Comm. (ed. 2) 485 The forms of Action..as crystallized in the law or in the edict. |
4. intr. To form (itself) into crystals, become crystalline in structure. crystallize out: to separate in the form of crystals from a solution.
| 1641 French Distill. iii. (1651) 73 Let it stand two or three dayes..to crystallize. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. i. 50 Aqua fortis..exhaled and placed in cold conservatories, will crystallise and shoot into white and glacious bodyes. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 4 Salts will not chrystallize, till the Water in which they are dissolv'd is near or quite cold. 1854 J. Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 379 As the solution cools the acid crystallizes out. 1878 Gurney Crystallogr. 7 Each substance will crystallise in its characteristic form. |
5. fig. To assume a definite or concrete form.
| 1816 Coleridge Lay Serm. 318 To make them crystallize into a semblance of growth. 1880 M{supc}Carthy Own Times III. xxxvi. 125 This vague impression crystallised into a conviction. |