v. Also -ise. [f. SYNCHRONISM: see -IZE. Cf. F. synchroniser.]
1. intr. To occur at the same time; to coincide in point of time; to be contemporary or simultaneous. Const. with.
c. 1624. Mede, Wks. (1672), 583. The Second Court … synchroniseth with the Times of the Beast.
1681. H. More, Expos. Dan., ii. 56. To conceive the times of the little Horn to synchronize with all the middle Synchronals of the Apocalypse.
1791. Burke, Corr. (1844), III. 345. To make the invasion synchronize with that bankruptcy, might not be so easy.
1847. De Quincey, Secret Societies, Wks. 1863, VI. 245. The birth and the death … synchronise by a metaphysical nicety.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, viii. 115. The degradation of art which synchronized so curiously with the revival of classical learning.
1892. S. Laing, Human Origins, 51. A King of this dynasty, Khudurhagamar, synchronizes with Abraham.
b. trans. To cause to be, or represent as, synchronous; to assign the same date to; to bring together events, etc., belonging to the same time. Also absol.
1806. Lady Morgan, Wild Irish Girl (1867), I. xi. 184 (Funk). He has synchronized heroes who flourished in two distant periods.
1827. Gentl. Mag., XCVII. II. 505/2. This little attempt to synchronise the date of all nations with the Mosaic Deluge.
1862. M. Hopkins, Hawaii, 55. On ‘the 25th day of second month of the seventh year of Ansey,’—a date difficult for the historian to synchronise with our own era.
1869. Rawlinson, Anc. Hist., Introd. 6. Nations accordingly, as the desire of exactness or the wish to synchronise arose, invented eras for themselves.
2. intr. To occur at the same successive instants of time; to keep time with; to go on at the same rate and exactly together; to have coincident periods, as two sets of movements or vibrations.
1867. Lewes, Hist. Philos. (ed. 3), I. p. xxxiii. So that the movements of Thought may synchronise with the movements of Things.
1869. Tyndall, Notes Lect. Light, § 304. Waves of ether are absorbed with special energy … by atoms whose periods of vibration synchronise with the periods of the waves. Ibid. (1871), Fragm. Sci. (1879), II. ii. 31. Small motions which synchronise with the appearance and disappearance of the solar spots.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., iii. 60. If the double period of the ship coincides with the period of the wave, the motions of each synchronise, or keep time, with the other.
b. trans. To cause to go at the same rate; spec. to cause (a timepiece) to indicate the same time as another.
1879. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 249. The idea of synchronizing the movements of the two instruments … was employed in telegraphy at a very early period.
1881. Bidwell, in Nature, 10 Feb., 346/1. The two cylinders would be driven by clock-work, synchronised by an electro-magnetic arrangement.
1882. Society, 18 Nov., 11/1. Unless the clock … was synchronised with Greenwich time.
Hence Synchronized ppl. a., Synchronizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also Synchronization, the action of synchronizing; Synchronizer, one who or that which synchronizes; spec. a device for synchronizing clocks; also, an apparatus for causing two electric machines to go at the same speed, or for indicating the agreement or difference of their speeds.
1828. G. S. Faber, Sacr. Cal. Prophecy, Pref. p. xiii. If the principle of abstract *synchronisation be rejected, the Apocalypse … becomes a mere chaos.
1865. Pall Mall G., No. 134. 5/2. The synchronization of the 12th of July with the nomination-day.
1883. Ogilvie (Annandale), *Synchronizer … one who or that which synchronizes; a contrivance for synchronizing clocks.
1916. Times, 20 May, 7/3. At luncheon time to-day the professional clock winders and synchronizers will start the work of advancing by an hour the hands of the clocks under their control.
1880. Echo, 24 Dec., 3/4. The *synchronising … of clocks … by means of pneumatic motive power transmitted through tubes … which has been found to answer admirably in Paris.
1882. C. Wood, in Argosy, XXXIV. 136. We become comparatively intimate; there is a sympathy, a power of ‘synchronizing.’
a. 1727. Newton, Chronol. Amended, ii. (1728), 191. Comparing the affairs of Egypt with the *synchronizing affairs of the Greeks and Hebrews.
1839. De Quincey, Mod. Superstit., Wks. 1862, III. 293. To suppose, that by some synchronising miracle, the constellation had been then specially called into existence.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., iii. 61. If a ship falls in with waves of synchronising period,… her rolling will then be the heaviest.
1901. A. Russell, in Electr. Rev., 19 July, 88/2. The synchronising current.
