v. [f. SPIRITUAL a. + -IZE, or ad. f. spiritualiser (16th c.). Cf. It. spiritualizzare, Sp. and Pg. espiritualizar.]
1. trans. To render spiritual; to invest with a spiritual character; to raise or change to a spiritual (or more spiritual) condition.
Freq. in the 17th c.
1631. R. H., Arraignm. Whole Creature, xiii. § 1. 173. The Soules food, if I may so say, is spiritualized to the sustentation of the spirit.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. 57. Christ more spirituallized their Joy, rather to rejoyce that their Names were written in Heaven.
1696. Stanhope, Chr. Pattern (1711), 81. This man is as it were spiritualized, can have recourse to God without distraction.
1801. B. Maxwell, Lett., in Mem. B. Ewing (1829), 37. That any thing I should write should be helpful in spiritualising another.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. xii. 279. Illness and solitude had done much to exalt and spiritualize Angus Hamleigh’s mind.
b. To convert into, invest with, a spiritual sense or meaning; to expound or understand in a spiritual sense; to explain away in this manner. Also absol.
1645. Calamy, Indictm. agst. Eng., 26. Oh that God would give us hearts to spiritualize these stories!
1663. Boyle, Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos., I. v. 115. Beasts inhabit and enjoy the world: man, if he will do more, must study, and (if I may so speak) spiritualize it.
1696. C. Leslie, Snake in Grass, 166. They have Spiritualiz’d away all the Letter of the Scripture, the Sacraments, and Christ’s Humanity.
1734. Watts, Reliq. Juv. (1789), 221. Must we spiritualize the affairs of larks, and worms, and squirrels, and learn religion from all the trifles in nature?
1798. Graves, Charac. Apos., 126. Nothing is attributed to natural causes; every thing is spiritualized and magnified.
1833. Fraser’s Mag., VIII. 47. There is an increasing tendency to spiritualise away the pains of what is technically called Hell.
1845. Kitto, Cycl. Bibl. Lit., s.v. Commentary, Pious reflections, and multitudinous inferences enter largely into our popular books of exposition. They Spiritualise, but they do not expound.
c. To render spiritual in appearance; to refine in a high degree.
1889. Hissey, Tour in Phaeton, 101. The softened light spiritualises the landscape.
1898. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, III. vi. (1899), 162. Sinfi’s noble features, illumined and spiritualized by a light that seemed more than earthly.
† 2. To invest with full spiritual or ecclesiastical status or rights. Obs.–1
1641. Termes de la Ley, 126. If Chappels founded by Lay men were not approved of by the Diocesan, and as they terme it, spiritualized, they are not accounted Benefices.
3. † a. To change, convert into, or reduce to spirit; to render volatile or spirituous. Obs.
1644. Digby, Nat. Bodies, xxvi. 238. This motion of the hart driueth the bloud (which is warmed and spiritualised, by being boyled in this furnace) through due passages into the arteries.
1694. Salmon, Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 347/2. From what has been said it appears, first, that the Gold ought to be spiritualized or subtilized.
1721. Bailey, Spiritualize (in Chymistry) is to reduce a compact mixt Body into the Principle call’d Spirit.
1741. Phil. Trans., LV. 242. It seems fitted,… by its expansive quality, to rarify and as it were spiritualize the blood.
b. To invest with the immaterial qualities or nature of a spirit.
1659. H. More, Immort. Soul (1662), 154. This body is far more active then ours, being more spiritualized, that is to say, having greater degrees of motion communicated unto it.
1818. Keats, Endym., IV. 993. Then ’twas fit that from this mortal state Thou shouldst, my love, by some unlook’d for change Be spiritualis’d.
† 4. absol. To inform with spirit. Obs.–1
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., 4. A Mass of Air, of subtile penetrating Matter, fit … to excite, animate, and spiritualize; and in short, to be the very Soul of this lower World.
Hence Spiritualizing ppl. a.
1845. Kitto, Cycl. Bibl. Lit., s.v. Commentary, A preaching, spiritualising commentary does not deserve the appellation of commentary at all.
1853. De Quincey, Autobiog. Sk., Wks. I. 27. That softening and spiritualising haze which belongs … to the action of dreams.
1899. W. R. Inge, Chr. Mysticism, viii. 317. The spiritualising power of human love.
