identify, v.
(aɪˈdɛntɪfaɪ)
[ad. late L. identificāre: see identity and -fy. Cf. F. identifier.]
1. a. trans. To make identical (with, † to something) in thought or in reality; to consider, regard, or treat as the same.
| 1644 Digby Two Treat. ii. vi. (1645) 63 A body..cannot be either like, or identified to nothing. 1669 Barrow Expos. Creed (1697) 89 All the divine perfections (being intrinsecal unto and identified with the divine nature or essence). 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxviii. III. 82 note, Osiris, whom he identifies with Serapis. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 191 They have incorporated and identified the estate of the church with the mass of private property. 1839–40 W. Irving Wolfert's R. (1855) 35 So as to identify the surrounding scenes with those of which I had just been reading. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. viii. (1858) II. 243 To identify their interests with those of the native chiefs. 1865 Pusey Truth Eng. Ch. 8 That he identified the glory of God with the gaining fresh converts to the Roman Church. |
b. (
a) To make one in interest, feeling, principle, action, etc.
with; to associate inseparably. Chiefly
refl. and pass. (
b)
to identify oneself with:
spec., to model oneself on,
esp. unconsciously; to feel oneself to be associated with or part of;
freq. absol. with ellipsis of the
refl. pron. Also
occas. intr., to perform or undergo such a process with regard to something unspecified.
| 1780 Burke Econ. Reform Wks. III. 348 Let us identify, let us incorporate ourselves with the people. 1831 Scott Abbot Introd., They became identified with the literature of their country. 1849 Lewis Infl. Author. Matters Opin. ix. §10 The abstinence of the State from identifying itself with one of the rival churches. 1859 Mill Liberty ii. 31 A legislature or an executive, not identified in interest with the people. 1866 Ld. Strangford Select. (1869) I. 102 A Crimean peace..is identified with the name of Stratford Canning. |
| 1913 A. A. Brill tr. Freud's Interpr. of Dreams iv. 126 If she has put herself in the place of her friend, or, as we may say, has identified herself with her friend. Ibid. 127 An hysterical woman identifies herself most readily..with persons with whom she has had sexual relations. 1940 ‘G. Orwell’ Inside Whale 51 Sam Weller, Mark Tapley, Clara Peggotty..identify with their master's family. 1955 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 5 The teen-agers who almost compulsively identify with this semicriminal subculture. 1958 Observer 2 Feb. 14/3 Readers can immediately identify with her nice puzzled hero. 1958 M. Argyle Relig. Behaviour v. 40 Other investigators have studied the beliefs of children who..‘identify’ themselves with their parents—i.e. wish to be liked by them, wish to resemble them. 1959 Listener 31 Dec. 1174/2 An engaging series of attempts and failures to ‘identify’, as cricket-master at a prep school, or as a journalist on a go-getting daily. 1967 G. Steiner Lang. & Silence 81 Because we are trained to give psychological and moral credence to the imaginary..we may find it more difficult to identify with the real world. 1968 Blues Unlimited Sept. 8 Finally Tina came on and tore the joint up. She signified, the women identified and the men just drooled. 1969 Times 17 Oct. 18/5 Everyone identified madly and Biba's knew no failure. 1972 Where Jan. 18/2 Thus the parents, in conversation at home, are able to identify themselves with the place and people under discussion. |
† c. intr. To be made, become, or prove to be the same; to become one
with.
Obs.| 1683 E. Hooker Pref. Ep. Pordage's Mystic Div. 103 Only as..conjoined with our affections, which commix, coincide, and as it were identifi with that grandest and Divinest Mysterie of Love, sciz. God made Flesh. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 271 An enlightened self-interest, which..they tell us, will identify with an interest more enlarged and publick. a 1834 Lamb Let. to Coleridge in Final Mem. (1848) I. 83 Your taste and mine do not always exactly identify. |
2. a. To determine (something) to be the same with something conceived, known, asserted, etc.; to determine or establish the identity of; to ascertain or establish what a given thing or who a given person is; in
Nat. Hist. to refer a specimen to its proper species.
| 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xxiii. (1830) 306 All indictments must set forth the christian name, sirname [etc.]..of the offender: and all this to identify his person. 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 167 The above figure..it is hoped is sufficiently accurate to enable the ornithologist to identify this very small bird. 1828 Webster s.v., The owner of the goods found them in the possession of the thief, and identified them. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. iii. i. §10 (1864) 473 A sailor identifies a speck in the horizon as a ship of a particular build. 1889 Athenæum 28 Sept. 421/1 Mr. Round..has also identified as belonging to the reign of Stephen an elaborate hidated survey. |
b. To serve as a means of identification for.
| 1886 J. Ward in Encycl. Brit. XX. 62/2 The voice perceived identifies Jacob, at the same time the hands identify Esau. |
3. To discover, perceive; to localize.
colloq.| 1922 D. H. Lawrence England, my England 45 After a lapse and a new effort, he identified a pain in his head. |
Hence
iˈdentifying ppl. a., that identifies.
| 1828 in Webster. 1872 Daily News 27 Apr. 3/4 The identifying warder is now one of the most important of the minor figures in our courts of justice. 1891 Pall Mall G. 14 May 6/1 The ornamental identifying medallions furnished to the members for wear during the tour. |