[f. CENTREsb. or a. F. centre-r. In 17th and 18th c. often spelt center, still prevalent in U.S. Cf. CENTERING.]
I. intr.
† 1. To rest as on a fixed center or pivot; to repose. Obs. (as a distinct sense, though it often colors 2).
1622. Bacon, Cæsar, Wks. (Bohn), 503. He … admitted none to his intimacies, but such whose whole expectations centered upon him.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, ix. 255 (J.). Where there is no visible truth, wherein to Centre, error is as wide as mens Phancies, and may wander to Eternity.
1669. Bunyan, Holy Citie, 97. Here centreth Luke the Evangelist, here centreth Jude.
1708. Penn, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., X. 268. He assures me he intends to centre with us, and end his days in that country.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 144. We have a Balance … to the value of 1,750,000l. which centers and remains among us.
† b. To unite, agree. Obs.
1622–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., To Rdr. I wondred how they could all center upon the same Proposal.
1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, Ep. Ded. 5. Let us both center together in this qualification.
2. To find or have their (or its) center; to be concentrated as at a center; ‘to be collected to a point’ (J.), to gather or collect as round a center; to be placed as at a center; to move or turn round as a center. Often with a mixture of notions, including that of sense 1.
1691–8. Norris, Pract. Disc., IV. 186. He that makes himself his End, that Centers and Terminates in himself.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. vii. 262. Whom all the Prophecies referred to, and in whom they should center.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 424. That bliss which only centres in the mind.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 208. In his person also centered the right of the Saxon monarchs.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1778), II. VII. 272. The supreme authority centred at last in a single person.
1781. Cowper, Convers., 134. His sole opinion … Centering at last in having none at all.
1794. Morse, Amer. Geog., 132. The trade, wealth, and power of America, may, at some future period, depend, and perhaps center upon the Mississippi.
1818. Cruise, Digest, VI. 550. If the whole property should center in one person.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 20. All three tubes afterwards centre in one.
1867. Hales, in Percy Folio, I. 143. The rare adventure on which the tale centres.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. viii. 262. It is around the King, rather than around the Duke, that the main storm of battle is made to centre.
1876. Green, Short Hist., v. § 4 (1882), 246. The hopes of the peasants centred in the young sovereign.
† 3. To converge (on) as a center. Obs.
1789. H. Walpole, Remin., viii. 65. All those mortifications centering on a constitution evidently tending to dissolution, made him totally neglect himself.
II. trans.
4. To place or fix in the center; to provide or mark with a center.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., lx. 18 (R.). Where the Sunne centers himselfe by right.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 228. In his hand He took the golden Compasses … One foot he center’d, and the other turn’d.
1887. Knox, Little Broken Vow, 9. A plot of smooth green grass … centred by a basin in which there is a continual plash of falling water.
† 5. To fix to, repose upon, as a fixed center or pivot. Obs. (But often coloring 6.)
1623. Ailesbury, Serm. (1624), 2. Man … doth center his restlesse motions vpon nothing but the Almighties fruition.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., xxxv. Men cent’red to Selfe-Interest and lock’t To their wild Causes.
1721. Berkeley, Prev. Ruin Gt. Brit., Wks. III. 205. Centering all our cares upon private interest.
6. To place or put as in a center; to collect, bring, or direct, as to a center; to concentrate in, on. To be centered in or on has often a shade of sense 5.
1702. Pope, Sapho, 50. Once in her arms you center’d all your joy.
1776. Goldsm., Haunch of Venison While thus I debated, in reverie centred.
1794. Godwin, Cal. Williams, 291. Each of these centered in himself a variety of occupations.
1844. Thirlwall, Greece, VIII. lxii. 179. All his hopes were henceforth centred in Antigonus.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. xiii. 606. The process of centering the administration of justice in the hands of the itinerant justices.
1878. Black, Green Past., xxxvii. 295. As if her whole thoughts had been centred on the Falls.
7. In various technical uses: To place or fix in the (exact) center; to find the center of; to grind (a lens) so that the thickest part is in the center.
1793. Sir G. Shuckburgh, in Phil. Trans., LXXXIII. 109. If this [the object glass] be not correctly centered … that is, if its axis be not concentric with the axis of the cell, in which it is fixed.
1796. Hutton, Math. Dict., I. 289. Cassini the younger has a discourse expressly on the necessity of well centring the object glass of a large telescope.
1831. Brewster, Optics, xli. 339. When the aperture was well centered.
1868. Lockyer, Elem. Astron., § 518. It is of the last importance … that it should be correctly centred,—that is, that the centre of movement should be also the centre of graduation.
