The Collaborative International Dictionary
Individualize \In`di*vid"u*al*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Individualized; p. pr. & vb. n. Individualizing.] [Cf. F. individualiser.] To mark as an individual, or to distinguish from others by peculiar properties; to invest with individuality; to give distinctive character to; to make distinctive; to enable differentiation from others of similar type; -- of properties of things.
The peculiarities which individualize and distinguish
the humor of Addison.
--N. Drake.
2. to render (a product or service) suitable to each individual person by varying to some degree its characteristics; to personalize.
Syn: personalize, individualize, make personal, make more personal.
3. To consider individually; to mention each individual.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1650s, "to point out individually;" see individual + -ize. From 1837 as "to make individual." Related: Individualized; individualizing.
Wiktionary
alt. 1 To give something its own individuality; to characterize or differentiate. 2 To modify something to suit an individual; to personalize. vb. 1 To give something its own individuality; to characterize or differentiate. 2 To modify something to suit an individual; to personalize.
WordNet
v. make or mark aor treat as individual; "The sounds were individualized by sharpness and tone" [syn: individualise]
make personal or more personal; "personalized service" [syn: personalize, personalise, individualise] [ant: depersonalize, depersonalize]
Usage examples of "individualize".
Humanity, he would not have failed to perceive that the attempt to measure the capacities and requirements of Society by the capacities and requirements of any individual or individuals, how catholic soever they may be, is but the repetition of the Procrustean principle on a broader basis, and that a reconstructive movement established on such a foundation could not meet the wants of this individualized epoch.
It was at this period of her career that she began to type-ize, individualize, synthesize, dramatize, superiorize, analyze, poetize, angelize, neologize, tragedify, prosify, and colossify--you must violate the laws of language to find words to express the newfangled whimsies in which even women here and there indulge.
In the third place, and most important, the number of digraphs is far greater than the number of single letters, and consequently the linguistic characteristics spread over many more elements and so have much less opportunity to individualize themselves.
It is true, we are such poor navigators that our thoughts, for the most part, stand off and on upon a harborless coast, are conversant only with the bights of the bays of poesy, or steer for the public ports of entry, and go into the dry docks of science, where they merely refit for this world, and no natural currents concur to individualize them.
Just as natural science is collective, industrialized research, unlike the individualized craft production of the social scientist, so the graduate science student benefits from the shared labour of an open lab, squabbling over who dirtied the glassware, who has booked the next session on the centrifuge or used the last of the pipette tips in an atmosphere where hierarchy becomes nearly but not quite submerged.
The result of such a policy will be to produce far more individualized human beings, more differences among people, more varied ideas, political and social sub-systems, and more color.