The Collaborative International Dictionary
Polymerize \Pol"y*mer*ize\, v. i. (Chem.) To change into another substance having the same atomic proportions, but a higher molecular weight; to undergo polymerization; thus, aldehyde polymerizes in forming paraldehyde.
Polymerize \Pol"y*mer*ize\, v. t. (Chem.) To cause polymerization of; to produce polymers from; to increase the molecular weight of, without changing the atomic proportions; thus, certain acids polymerize aldehyde.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1851, from polymer + -ize. Related: Polymerized; polymerizing.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive chemistry English) to convert a monomer to a polymer by polymerization 2 (context intransitive chemistry English) to undergo polymerization
WordNet
v. cause (a compound) to polymerize [syn: polymerise]
undergo polymerization [syn: polymerise]
Usage examples of "polymerize".
Great ducts suck in methane and other atmospheric gases, apply energy, polymerize and diamondize and crack off hydrogen to fill the lift cells high above.
We set the finished kite up in the sun to polymerize the oil, then had a few rounds of beer.
This material could not be kept for any length of time near the scene of the work, since it tended to polymerize at ordinary temperatures even with the inhibitor present.
The frozen walls had been polymerized, showing ice locked behind a molecule-thin impenetrable layer and lit by soothing blue lights.
Multicolored glow-lamps reflected off the polymerized ice walls, making it seem as if they walked through a rainbow caught in crystal.
Callista standing over him, her slender body silhouetted against pale watery light, a backwash of reflections that penetrated the polymerized ice walls in the comet quarry.
Maybe the thoughts we generate today and flick around from mind to mind, like the jokes that turn up simultaneously at dinner parties in Hong Kong and Boston, or the sudden changes in the way we wear our hair, or all the popular love songs, are the primitive precursors of more complicated, polymerized structures that will come later, analogous to the prokaryotic cells that drifted through shallow pools in the early days of biological evolution.
Eventually, many of the polyethylene bags and plastic containers were screened out for burning, but almost nothing was known about what happens when plastics burn, and in fact most such polymerized substances simply evaporated, adding to the enormous load of air pollution, which by 1969 had reached the highest levels of the atmosphere from jet exhausts.
The bacteria had apparently polymerized the sea water, altering its molecular structure, creating a fourth state of water: not liquid, solid, or gaseous, but something inbetween.
Arms sheathed in polymerized horn flashed, fingers like knives cut through guts and muscles.
The first trips to Earth had fetched only wood, which had then been vaporized with the heat of focused sunlight, exposed to catalysts, condensed, polymerized, and formed in sheets.
Raquella heard the buzz of a bright green beetle as it dove out of dense purplish foliage, flew low along the polymerized leaves and canopy, then swooped higher above the treetops, its immense hard-shelled wings catching an updraft.
Under the stars, he met Raquella on the polymerized canopy landing pad across from the cave cities.
On the polymerized treetop landing pad, he stepped out of the shuttle and hugged her enthusiastically.
After climbing down from the polymerized landing pad atop silvery purple leaves, she went immediately to the large chamber she shared with Aurelius Venport.