v. Also -ise. [f. CENTRAL + -IZE, or ad. F. centraliser.]
1. intr. To come together at a center; to form a center; to concentrate.
1800. Monthly Mag., VIII. 598/1. A new Popery, or Catholic Patriarchate … which is now to centralise at Mohilow, or Petersburg.
1859. Sat. Rev., VIII. 72/2. Art has a tendency to centralize.
1888. L. Hearn, in Harper’s Mag., April, 764/2. The eyes stared—flamed as if the life of the man had centralized and focussed within them.
2. trans. To bring to a center, locate in a center, make central; esp. to concentrate (administrative powers) in a single head or center, instead of distributing them among local departments; to subject to centralization.
1801. Dupré, Neolog. Fr. Dict., 44. To centralize the welfare by depurating the committees of false patriots.
1834. Arnold, Lett., in Life & Corr. (1844), I. vii. 381. If ever the question of National education comes definitely before the government, I am very desirous of their not ‘centralizing’ too much, but availing themselves of the existing machinery.
1839–48. Bailey, Festus, 30/1. Draw to thy soul, And centralize the rays which are around Of the Divinity.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., iv. 59. Business always tends to centralize itself.
1884. F. Harrison, Choice Bks. (1886), 238. England was centralised earlier than any other European nation.
1885. Manch. Exam., 6 July, 5/1. The functions that are now centralised in the Government departments in London.
3. To give or assign a center to.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., I. i. 22. The transitional style of the Venetian work is centralised by the date 1180.
