diversify, v.
(dɪˈvɜːsɪfaɪ, daɪ-)
[a. OF. diversifie-r (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. med.L. dīversificāre to render unlike (Du Cange), f. dīversus diverse + -ficāre vbl. formative, see -fy.]
1. a. trans. To render diverse, different, or varied, in form, features, or qualities; to give variety or diversity to; to variegate, vary, modify.
| 1490 Caxton Eneydos vi. 24 Bochace..hath transposed or atte leste dyuersifyed the falle and caas of dydo otherwyse than vyrgyle. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg., The bones of the body..be deuersyfyed in dyuers maners. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 17 This adventitious or accidental pressure..must diversify the Figure of the included heterogeneous fluid. 1704 Pope Windsor For. 145 Swift trouts, diversify'd with crimson stains. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 505 The course of parliamentary business was diversified by another curious and interesting episode. |
† b. To make different, to differentiate from.
| 1594 Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits (1616) 98 Whether it could haue..beene able to diuersifie them from those who came with them. 1661 Feltham Resolves (ed. 8) ii. lxxxi, We diversifie our selves from him [God], we fight against his love. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 409 ¶3 Ways of expressing himself which diversify him from all other Authors. |
c. Econ. To introduce or use diversification in (see diversification). Also intr., to engage in diversification.
| 1939 S. R. Dennison Location of Industry i. iii. 72 As industry becomes diversified, as the needs of consumers grow.., then the market exerts a stronger attraction. 1944 A. Cairncross Introd. Econ. ii. vi. 76 Firms may seek to spread their risks by diversifying their output, or markets, or sources of supply, or processes of manufacture. 1967 Times Rev. Industry Apr. 39/1 Westland Engineers itself diversified when it bought up Unique Balance Company, making sash balances for windows. 1971 Guardian 6 Mar. 1/1 An explosives firm at Great Oakley, near Harwich, has decided to ‘diversify’ into potato chips. Its factory was threatened with closure unless a new product was introduced. |
† 2. a. intr. or absol. To produce diversity or variety. b. intr. (for refl.) Obs.
| 1481 Caxton Myrr. iii. xxiv. 189 How nature werketh, and..how she dyuersefyeth in euerych of her werkes. a 1680 Glanvill tr. Fontenelle's Plurality Worlds (1695) 89 How Nature diversifies in these several Worlds. 1815 F. Burney Diary (1846) VII. 222 Prospects eternally diversifying varied our delighted attention. |
Hence diˈversifying vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1611 Cotgr., Bigarrément, a variation, or diuersifying, as in colours. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Diversifying, in rhetoric, is of infinite service to the orator; it..may fitly be called the subject of all his tropes and figures. 1837 Prichard Phys. Hist. Man. (ed. 3) II. 226 The diversifying process..may have given rise to differences. |