v. [f. CRYSTAL + -IZE: cf. mod.F. cristalliser (1680 in Hatzfeld).]
† 1. trans. To convert into crystal or ice; to make crystal. Obs.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. I. Handy Crafts, 185. When the Winter’s keener breath began To crystallize the Baltike Ocean, To glaze the Lakes.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 50. Some of our Chymicks facetiously affirm, that at the last fire all shall be crystallized and reverberated into glasse.
1798. S. Rogers, Ep. to Friend, Note, Wild Winter ministers his dread controul To cool and crystallize the nectared bowl.
2. To cause to assume a crystalline form or structure, to form into crystals.
1664. Phil. Trans., I. 29. By dissolving them…, and Crystallizing them.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 82. As Alum, Peter, &c. are crystallized out of a cooling liquor, in which, by boyling they have been dissolv’d.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 69. All salts that are capable of being crystallised are distinguishable by the figures of their crystals.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., ii. 47. Limestone crystallised by the heat of superincumbent lava.
3. fig. To give a definite or concrete and permanent form or shape to (something of an undefined, vague or floating character).
1663. Cowley, Pindar. Odes, Muse, iv. This shining Piece of Ice Which melts so soon away … Thy Verse does solidate and Crystallize.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 41. 157. Crystalising into permanent shapes the floating clouds of metaphor.
1875. Poste, Gaius, IV. Comm. (ed. 2), 485. The forms of Action … as crystallized in the law or in the edict.
4. intr. To form (itself) into crystals, become crystalline in structure. Crystallize out: to separate in the form of crystals from a solution.
1641. French, Distill., iii. (1651), 73. Let it stand two or three dayes … to crystallize.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. i. 50. Aqua fortis … exhaled and placed in cold conservatories, will crystallise and shoot into white and glacious bodyes.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 4. Salts will not chrystallize, till the Water in which they are dissolv’d is near or quite cold.
1854. J. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Chem., 379. As the solution cools the acid crystallizes out.
1878. Gurney, Crystallogr., 7. Each substance will crystallise in its characteristic form.
5. fig. To assume a definite or concrete form.
1816. Coleridge, Lay Serm., 318. To make them crystallize into a semblance of growth.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, III. xxxvi. 125. This vague impression crystallised into a conviction.
