synchronize, v.
(ˈsɪŋkrənaɪz)
Also -ise.
[f. synchronism: see -ize. Cf. F. synchroniser.]
1. a. intr. To occur at the same time; to coincide in point of time; to be contemporary or simultaneous. Const. with.
| c 1624 Mede Wks. (1672) 583 The Second Court..synchroniseth with the Times of the Beast. 1681 H. More Expos. Dan. ii. 56 To conceive the times of the little Horn to synchronize with all the middle Synchronals of the Apocalypse. 1791 Burke Corr. (1844) III. 345 To make the invasion synchronize with that bankruptcy, might not be so easy. 1847 De Quincey Secret Societies Wks. 1863 VI. 245 The birth and the death..synchronise by a metaphysical nicety. 1859 Jephson Brittany viii. 115 The degradation of art which synchronized so curiously with the revival of classical learning. 1892 S. Laing Human Origins 51 A King of this dynasty, Khudurhagamar, synchronizes with Abraham. |
b. trans. To cause to be, or represent as, synchronous; to assign the same date to; to bring together events, etc. belonging to the same time. Also
absol.| 1806 Lady Morgan Wild Irish Girl (1867) I. xi. 184 (Funk) He has synchronized heroes who flourished in two distant periods. 1827 Gentl. Mag. XCVII. ii. 505/2 This little attempt to synchronise the date of all nations with the Mosaic Deluge. 1862 M. Hopkins Hawaii 55 On ‘the 25th day of second month of the seventh year of Ansey’,—a date difficult for the historian to synchronise with our own era. 1869 Rawlinson Anc. Hist. Introd. 6 Nations accordingly, as the desire of exactness or the wish to synchronise arose, invented eras for themselves. |
2. a. intr. To occur at the same successive instants of time; to keep time
with; to go on at the same rate and exactly together; to have coincident periods, as two sets of movements or vibrations.
| 1867 Lewes Hist. Philos. (ed. 3) I. p. xxxiii, So that the movements of Thought may synchronise with the movements of Things. 1869 Tyndall Notes Lect. Light §304 Waves of ether are absorbed with special energy..by atoms whose periods of vibration synchronise with the periods of the waves. 1871 ― Fragm. Sci. (1879) II. ii. 31 Small motions which synchronise with the appearance and disappearance of solar spots. 1889 Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. iii. 60 If the double period of the ship coincides with the period of the wave, the motions of each synchronise, or keep time, with the other. |
b. trans. To cause to go at the same rate;
spec. to cause (a timepiece) to indicate the same time as another.
| 1879 Prescott Sp. Telephone 249 The idea of synchronizing the movements of the two instruments..was employed in telegraphy at a very early period. 1881 S. Bidwell in Nature 10 Feb. 346/1 The two cylinders would be driven by clock-work, synchronised by an electro-magnetic arrangement. 1882 Society 18 Nov. 11/1 Unless the clock..was synchronised with Greenwich time. |
c. In technical senses: to cause to coincide in time; to operate simultaneously or in synchronization. Also
intr.| 1910 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 206/1 The movements of the mouths of the characters on the scene synchronise with the utterance of the phonograph. 1922 Radio News (U.S.) Nov. 867/1 (heading), De Forest demonstrates his invention for synchronizing speech with movies... You..heard the tone which, to a musically trained ear, synchronized perfectly with every movement of the violin bow. 1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 196 René Clair would not dare to synchronize one of his scenes with the sound of a real bal-musette band. 1940 F. J. Mortimer Wall's Dict. Photogr. (ed. 15) 315 Focal-plane shutters can be well synchronised with the flash on small cameras. 1956 Focal Encycl. Photogr. 492/1 The duration of electronic flash discharge is always shorter than the fastest shutter speed with which it can be synchronized. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 912 d/1 It [sc. a video signal]..must have added to it the timing pulses needed to synchronize the receiver. 1962 S. A. Choudhury in G. A. T. Burdett Automatic Control Handbk. iv. 39 A recent development which enables the receiver to accelerate from rest and automatically synchronise by simply putting the excitation on the selsyns through a three-pole switch. 1977 J. Hedgecoe Photographer's Handbk. 34/2 Cheaper cameras which only take bulbs or cubes are synchronized at low speeds, usually around 1/25 sec. |
3. gen. To combine or co-ordinate.
| 1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 3 Apr. 4/5 The law is probably the only profession that must be synchronized with another profession—writing. 1976 Time 27 Dec., facing p. 36 (Advt.), Both media synchronize national interests with multinational scope. 1977 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 14 July 33/2 Silberman quotes an unreported speech given by the foreign minister, Milos Minic, which alleges not only that Western intelligence is involved with fascist exiles but also that Western press coverage of Yugoslavia is synchronized to discredit the country. |
Hence
ˈsynchronizing vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also
ˌsynchroniˈzation, the action of synchronizing,
spec. in
Electr. Engin. and in other technical uses.
| 1828 G. S. Faber Sacr. Cal. Prophecy Pref. p. xiii, If the principle of abstract *synchronisation be rejected, the Apocalypse..becomes a mere chaos. 1865 Pall Mall G. No. 134. 5/2 The synchronization of the 12th of July with the nomination-day. 1913 N.Y. Times 18 Feb. 3/1 Mr. Edison was looking for perfect synchronization of record and film. 1922 Radio News (U.S.) Nov. 867/1 Mr. de Forest has solved the secret of the ‘talkie movie’ with perfect synchronization. 1928 Manch. Guardian Weekly 17 Aug. 134/4 The sound is transformed into light and recorded on the margin of the film in automatic synchronisation with the movement of the lips. 1932 Discovery July 215/1 Lodge had shown the importance of tuning or ‘synchronization’. 1940 Amateur Radio Handbk. (ed. 2) xix. 274/1 When the vision signals are..subject to serious interference which tends to upset synchronisation. 1958 Newnes Compl. Amat. Photogr. 37 Shutter synchronisation. Ibid., The flash synchronisation may have only an X setting. 1962 S. A. Choudhury in G. A. T. Burdett Automatic Control Handbk. iv. 36 If, before the supply is switched on, the rotors are 180 degrees displaced, no synchronisation will take place when the excitation is applied. |
| 1880 Echo 24 Dec. 3/4 The *synchronising..of clocks..by means of pneumatic motive power transmitted through tubes..which has been found to answer admirably in Paris. 1882 C. Wood in Argosy XXXIV. 136 We become comparatively intimate; there is a sympathy, a power of ‘synchronizing’. 1931 B. Brown Talking Pictures i. 3 The earliest practical attempts at synchronizing, i.e. keeping speech and gesture perfectly in phase. 1943 Gloss. Terms Telecomm. (B.S.I.) 35 Synchronising, the adjustment of the frequency of the time base to bear an integral relationship to the frequency of the phenomenon under investigation. |
| a 1727 Newton Chronol. Amended ii. (1728) 191 Comparing the affairs of Egypt with the *synchronizing affairs of the Greeks and Hebrews. 1839 De Quincey Mod. Superstit. Wks. 1862 III. 293 To suppose, that by some synchronising miracle, the constellation had been then specially called into existence. 1889 Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. iii. 61 If a ship falls in with waves of synchronising period,..her rolling will then be the heaviest. 1901 A. Russell in Electr. Rev. 19 July 88/2 The synchronising current. 1926 Encycl. Brit. III. 136/1 In the latter case the synchronising signals must be transmitted over a channel separate from the picture channel [in phototelegraphy]. 1928 C. F. S. Gamble Story N. Sea Air Station iv. 68 The ‘synchronizing gear’, enabling a machine-gun to fire through the tractor air-screw. 1961 G. Millerson Technique Television Production ii. 20 (caption) The component parts of the video signal..synchronizing level. |