to galvanize
- verb
- /ˈɡælvəˌnaɪz/
- Archaic
:
galvanizar
- Derek was resuscitated, his heart galvanized into beating again, and he began to breathe again, it would be said.
Examples
-
The doctor used an electric shock to galvanize the patient's muscles during the procedure.
-
When the tank was clear, they lifted the lid from the galvanized watertight box that floated in the water.
Fiction book (1998) -
An electric twinge crackles through my body, galvanizing the hair at the nape of my neck.
Fiction book (1996) -
And through all pulsed the hammering-throbbing current, so like a galvanizing charge animating matter.
Fiction book (1997) -
He figured he would replace the hot and cold supply lines all the way back to the water meter, and he would use galvanized pipe instead of copper to do this.
Fiction book (2000) -
He could recognize the tone of Betty's phone—he knew it that well; but the phone was at the bottom of a galvanized metal dustbin.
Fiction book (1998) -
This non-profit trade association provides educational and technical assistance regarding all aspects of after-fabrication hot-dip galvanizing for corrosion protection, including galvanizing's performance in marine, water, and wastewater environments.
Academic text (1998) -
An electric pulse can galvanize the nerves, causing immediate reaction in the body.
-
During the experiment, the technician applied a current to galvanize the muscle tissue for analysis.
Phrasal Verbs
How Strong
Surface Forms
Morphology
galvanize = galvanic (transparent) = galvan + ize
This sense ('to stimulate nerves or muscles by electric shock') is a direct, literal extension of 'galvanic' (electrical stimulation) using the productive verb-forming suffix '-ize'.
Etymology
Galvanize was first used after the scientist Galvani, whose electric experiments made muscles move, so it once meant using electricity to make nerves or muscles work. That's why in medicine to galvanize is to stimulate a muscle or nerve with an electric 'shock'.