v. [f. prec. + -IZE.] trans. To furnish with a letter of recommendation; also, to present with a public testimonial: see TESTIMONIAL sb. 4 and 5. (In quot. 1899 Improperly, To ask for testimonials.)
1852. Tait’s Mag., XIX. 344. Hanging is going out of fashion, and testimonialising is coming in.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, lxiii. People were testimonialising his wife.
1886. West. Morn. News, 27 April, 4/6. Sir E— H— is to be testimonialised.
1899. C. Scott, Drama of Yesterday, I. xii. 417. I resolved … to testimonialise the influential friends of my father.
Hence Testimonialized ppl. a.; Testimonializing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also Testimonialization, celebration by means of testimonials; Testimonializer, one who furnishes, or contributes to, a testimonial.
1898. G. B. Shaw, in Daily Chron., 13 Oct., 4/4. The celebration and *testimonialisation of remarkable events and eminent men will always be cherished in England as a means of procuring notoriety for noisy nobodies.
1893. Chamb. Jrnl., 11 March, 145/1. A much *testimonialised medicine.
1854. Tait’s Mag., XXI. 386. The *testimonialisers threw themselves into the business with a truly heroical enthusiasm.
1891. E. Kinglake, Australian at H., 53. *Testimonialising has been rather overdone of late.
