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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
predispose
verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And their education and trailing had predisposed them to hard work.
▪ Diabetes predisposes the patient to fungus or other opportunistic infections involving the intracranial contents.
▪ I was predisposed not to like him; maybe he sensed this.
▪ It has been suggested that emergency colectomy and postoperative sepsis may predispose to the development of pouchitis.
▪ Seligman has also suggested that a maladaptive style of thinking can be learned which predisposes a person to depression.
▪ Some genetic disorders predispose individuals to the toxic effects of substances found in the workplace or environment.
▪ The twentysomethings of the X generation may be more predisposed to quitting a job and drifting.
▪ Tricyclic antidepressants and phenothiazines may precipitate seizures in an occasional patient who has predisposing risk factors for epilepsy.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Predispose

Predispose \Pre`dis*pose"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Predisposed; p. pr. & vb. n. Predisposing.] [Pref. pre- + dispose: cf. F. pr['e]disposer.]

  1. To dispose or incline beforehand; to give a predisposition or bias to; as, to predispose the mind to friendship.

  2. To make fit or susceptible beforehand; to give a tendency to; as, debility predisposes the body to disease.

    Predisposing causes (Med.), causes which render the body liable to disease; predisponent causes.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
predispose

1640s, "to put into a certain frame of mind," perhaps a back-formation from predisposition. Related: Predisposed; predisposing.

Wiktionary
predispose

vb. 1 To make someone susceptible to something (such as a disease). 2 To make someone inclined to something in advance; to influence.

WordNet
predispose

v. make susceptible; "This illness predisposes you to gain weight"

Usage examples of "predispose".

Whatever tends to favor an undue accumulation of blood in the hemorrhoidal veins predisposes to piles.

The predisposing causes are conceded to be assimilative and nervous debility.

Somebody circumstantially predisposed to wealth, who thinks for herself and wants other people to, too.

People like Ann Campbell are already predisposed to this type of personality, so they gravitate toward someplace like West Point.

If these figures really are typical for an average lion pride, then any gene that predisposed males to behave towards other males as if they were nearly half brothers would have positive survival value.

We will contend that these two agencies, which played so critical a role in her being dragged by the hair to the dock, were predisposed to exact revenge on her by concocting the evidence against her.

Lord of Patrice had no interest in acrobats, and, knowing that, I was already predisposed to dislike him.

By virtue of my vocation I should have been predisposed to believe that all people, under certain circumstances, are capable of almost any crime.

Prosecutors had amassed a jury pool of over one thousand people but were having a tough time finding anyone not predisposed to finding Joel guilty even before going through the formality of a trial.

For a man predisposed to stoniness of the heart, this surely was unwholesome liquor.

My journey, though by rail, and as easy as that of the Persian gentleman who skimmed the air, seated on a piece of carpet, predisposed me to sleep.

Aunt Ida had tearfully explained that the Barretts had a bad gene, a gene that left them predisposed to mental illness.

With the memory of past feuds and hatreds in his mind, and predisposed against any Vaufontaine, his greeting was courteously disdainful, his manner preoccupied.

Those who lead a sedentary life and indulge in rich food and liquor appear to be predisposed to this disease.

Shridharani believes that the Hindese were willing to accept Satyagraha first because, unarmed under British law, no other means were available to them, and then because they were predisposed to the method because of the Hindu philosophy of non-violence and the mystic belief that truth will triumph eventually since it is a force greater than the physical.