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magnetize

[mag-ni-tahyz]
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verb (used with object), mag·net·ized, mag·net·iz·ing.
  1. to make a magnet of or impart the properties of a magnet to.
  2. to exert an attracting or compelling influence upon: The evangelist's oratory magnetized his listeners.
  3. Archaic. to mesmerize.
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Also especially British, mag·ne·tise.

Origin of magnetize

First recorded in 1775–85; magnet + -ize
Related formsmag·net·iz·er, nounnon·mag·net·ized, adjectivere·mag·net·ize, verb (used with object), re·mag·net·ized, re·mag·net·iz·ing.un·mag·net·ized, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for magnetize

Historical Examples

  • Put a vision in front of one of these currents and you can magnetize it in that direction.

    A Preface to Politics

    Walter Lippmann

  • Then magnetize the needle, and keep the magnetoscope in your book.

    Physics

    Willis Eugene Tower

  • (B) Magnetize the needle so that its point will be a N pole.

  • Men had wondered how an electrical discharge could magnetize steel.

    The Story of Great Inventions

    Elmer Ellsworth Burns

  • Thus you can magnetize the needle by using the other needle.

British Dictionary definitions for magnetize

magnetize

magnetise

verb (tr)
  1. to make (a substance or object) magnetic
  2. to attract strongly
  3. an obsolete word for mesmerize
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Derived Formsmagnetizable or magnetisable, adjectivemagnetization or magnetisation, nounmagnetizer or magnetiser, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for magnetize

v.

1799, from magnet + -ize. Related: Magnetized; magnetizing. From 1785 in now-obsolete sense of "to mesmerize."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
magnetize in Science

magnetize

[măg′nĭ-tīz′]
  1. To cause an object to become temporarily or permanently magnetic. For example, an unmagnetized object made of ferromagnetic material consists of molecules that are magnetic but randomly aligned, producing no net magnetic field; exposure to a magnetic field causes the molecules to align themselves with the field, producing their own net field, so that the object as a whole becomes magnetized.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.