vulcanize

American  

[vuhl-kuh-nahyz] / ˈvʌl kəˌnaɪz /

especially British, vulcanise

verb (used with object)

vulcanized, vulcanizing

1. to treat (rubber) with sulfur and heat, thereby imparting strength, greater elasticity, durability, etc.

2. to subject (a substance other than rubber) to some analogous process, as to harden it.

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vulcanize British  

/ ˈvʌlkəˌnaɪz /

verb

1. to treat (rubber) with sulphur or sulphur compounds under heat and pressure to improve elasticity and strength or to produce a hard substance such as vulcanite

2. to treat (substances other than rubber) by a similar process in order to improve their properties

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vulcanize Scientific  

/ vŭl′kə-nīz′ /

1. To harden rubber by combining it with sulfur or other substances in the presence of heat and pressure. Vulcanization gives rubber strength, resistance, and elasticity.

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Other Word Forms

• nonvulcanized adjective
• self-vulcanizing adjective
• semivulcanized adjective
• unvulcanized adjective
• vulcanizable adjective
• vulcanization noun
• vulcanizer noun

Etymology

Origin of vulcanize

First recorded in 1820–30; Vulcan + -ize

Explanation

To vulcanize is to submit rubber to a process that makes it hard. Charles Goodyear, whose name is synonymous with car tires, first developed the method used to vulcanize rubber. If it weren't for the ability to vulcanize rubber, a process that involves using chemicals to strengthen it, our lives would look very different than they do. We use this hardened rubber in objects including the tires on our cars, rubber hoses, the soles of our shoes, and those red rubber balls we use to play kickball. Before it came to describe this process, vulcanize meant "put into flames," from the Roman god of fire, Vulcan.

Example Sentences

The key to its tire-making properties is a new curing agent that makes it possible to vulcanize Plioflex.

From Time Magazine Archive

Liquid latex currently takes two to three minutes to vulcanize, making it impractical.

From Time Magazine Archive

On every student's desk at Edgewood hangs a brand-new gas mask, product of a factory on the reservation where 2,000 women workers hem, stitch and vulcanize masks for the expanding Army.

From Time Magazine Archive

The verb vulcanize means “to strengthen a material such as rubber by combining it with sulfur and then applying heat and pressure.”

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

The term vulcanize, therefore, is traceable either directly or indirectly, through the fire or the sulphur employed in the process, to the name of the Roman god.

From Great Inventions and Discoveries by Piercy, Willis Duff