Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Characterize \Char"ac*ter*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Characterized; p. pr. & vb. n. Characterizing.] [LL. characterizare, Gr. ?: cf. F. charact['e]riser.]
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To make distinct and recognizable by peculiar marks or traits; to make with distinctive features.
European, Asiatic, Chinese, African, and Grecian faces are Characterized.
--Arbuthnot. To engrave or imprint. [Obs.]
--Sir M. Hale.-
To indicate the character of; to describe.
Under the name of Tamerlane he intended to characterize King William.
--Johnson. -
To be a characteristic of; to make, or express the character of.
The softness and effeminacy which characterize the men of rank in most countries.
--W. Irving. -
(Chem.) to identify the structure or nature of; as, the antibiotic activity in the sample was characterized by HPLC, and proved to be erythromycin.
Syn: To describe; distinguish; mark; designate; style; particularize; entitle.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, "to engrave, write," back-formation from characterization, or else from Medieval Latin characterizare, from Greek kharakterizein "to designate by a characteristic mark," from kharakter (see character). Meaning "to describe the qualities of" is recorded from 1630s; that of "to be characteristic" is from 1744. Related: Characterized; characterizing.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 to depict someone or something a particular way (often negative) 2 to determine the characteristics of
WordNet
v. describe or portray the character or the qualities or peculiarities of; "You can characterize his behavior as that of an egotist"; "This poem can be characterized as a lament for a dead lover" [syn: qualify, characterise]
be characteristic of; "What characterizes a Venetian painting?" [syn: characterise]
Usage examples of "characterize".
It was their teaching that aroused Moslem scholars from the apathy that had characterized the attitude of the Arabian people toward science at the beginning of Mohammedanism.
Caliphs of the first Arabian dynasty did not exhibit the same interest in education, and above all in science, that characterized Moawia.
The Llano complex, in turn, is lumped into a large group of archeological remains that also includes younger artifact assemblages characterized by projectile points similar in form but lacking the diagnostic flutes.
With Brahminism the religion lost its original and natural character, and became characterized by a slavish submission to a priesthood, which abrogated the truly human.
And yet the manifestations of the sort of uncertainty which had characterized some aspects of magic and which he now attributed to hypothetical additional continua had occurred frequently, even in modern times.
She had the same manner of pride that characterized Juan Cordova, and which she had probably learned from him.
He was a senior specialist in chicanery and cajolery, trained to the incisive efficiency and boldness that characterized Dagenham Couriers and reflected the ruthlessness of its founder.
In fact, the commercial character of Christmas helped to make the holiday national: in a country characterized by geographical regionalism and religious denominationalism, the marketplace was one place where diverse people could come together.
It surged eastward and for twelve million years dominated the foothills, cutting them away, scraping down hillocks, and depositing on the plains new layers of soil characterized by a rocky, infertile content.
They slandered him in trade newspapers, characterizing him as a Dickensian monster out to create a sweatshop based on management by intimidation.
It is characterized by great irritability of the stomach, and persistent vomiting and purging, the discharges from the bowels being copious and watery, and sometimes containing specks of curd, yellowish-green matter, and mucus.
Their resistance to enclosure of common land, pond drainage and woodland is perhaps better characterized as a struggle for capital resources with the agents of seigneurial estates than as blind conservatism.
Since the controls provided by Bretton Woods made the dollar de facto inconvertible, the monetary mediation of international production and trade developed through a phase characterized by the relatively free circulation of capital, the construction of a strong Eurodollar market, and the fixing of political parity more or less everywhere in the dominant countries.
But when it is considered that these same experiments might have been conducted under the influence of an anaesthetic, so as to minimize, if not remove, this needless suffering, this cold-blooded, heartless torture can only be characterized as contemptible and monstrous.
Folks of all manner had frequently characterized him as priggish, fretful, and faultfinding, but his newfound insights into the nature of existence appeared to have boosted those personality traits, as well.