collimate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to bring into line; make parallel.
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to adjust accurately the line of sight of (a telescope).
verb
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to adjust the line of sight of (an optical instrument)
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to use a collimator on (a beam of radiation or particles)
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to make parallel or bring into line
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of collimate
1615–25; < Latin collimātus, misreading of collineātus, past participle of collineāre to direct in a straight line, equivalent to col- col- 1 + -lineā-, verbal derivative of linea line 1 + -tus past participle suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Dr. Donald Frush, chief of pediatric radiology at the Duke University School of Medicine, said that failing to properly cone, or collimate, the radiation was rare.
From New York Times ● Feb. 28, 2011
The collimated outflow produces the radio waves, while the disk of gas surrounding the black hole emits X-rays.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 21, 2024
However, Sgr A* currently has limited nearby matter, so the black hole has been relatively quiet, with weakly collimated outflows, in recent millennia.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 21, 2024
The result is an intense beam of collimated, or parallel, rays of electromagnetic radiation.
From Nature ● Jan. 8, 2019
The γ rays are collimated in such a manner that only 1.00% of them strike the patient.
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
A bright white light under water is collimated and directed upon a prism.
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
The collimating lens L₂ is filled by this beam, and the rays issue parallel to one another and fall on the prisms P₁ and P₂, which disperse them.
From Colour Measurement and Mixture by Abney, W. de W.
Light which enters the collimating lens partly passes through the prisms and is partly reflected from the first surface of the prism; that we utilize, thus giving a second shadow.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 595, May 28, 1887 by Various
If the source be a point or a line, and a collimating lens be used, the incident waves may be regarded as plane.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 4 "Diameter" to "Dinarchus" by Various
I took out the little collimating screws first, then I drew out the tube, and in that I found a brass plate screwed on the diaphragm which contained the lines.
From Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals by Mitchell, Maria
In addition to the observations which he has left us, he was the first inventor or proposer of the collimating telescope, an instrument which has become almost a necessity wherever accurate observations are made.
From Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science by Newcomb, Simon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
