v. [f. LOCAL a. + -IZE.]
1. trans. To make local in character; to invest or imbue with the characteristics of a particular place or locality.
1792. Mary Wollstonecr., Rights Wom., 123. May it not be fairly inferred that their [sc. the nobility’s] local situation swallowed up the man, and produced a character similar to that of women, who are locallized, if I may be allowed the word, by the rank they are placed in, by courtesy?
a. 1796. Burns, Remarks Sc. Songs, Wks. 1834, VIII. 18. Songs are always less or more localised (if I may be allowed the verb) by some of the modifications of time and place.
2. To fix or plant in a particular place or district, or in a particular part or point of any whole or system. Usually with limitative force: To restrict or confine to a particular place or area; to make local in range or currency.
1798. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XXV. 162. Their privileged banks [etc.] … which unnaturally localize and accumulate wealth, that was intended by nature for equal diffusion among the skilful and industrious.
a. 1835. J. MacCulloch, Proofs & Illustr. Attrib. God (1837), III. xlii. 91. To localize peculiar foods to peculiar climates.
1839. Spirit Metrop. Conserv. Press (1840), I. 54. There, on that spot, stands the fatal axe of the revolutionary tribunal, naturalised everywhere, localised everywhere.
1859. G. Wilson, Gateways Knowl. (ed. 3), 96. Though we are in the habit of speaking of it [sc. the sense of touch] as localised in the fingers.
1866. Grove, Contrib. Sci., in Corr. Phys. Forces, 201. The power of localising, if the term be permitted, heat which would otherwise be dissipated.
1888. Daily News, 25 July, 5/1. Contributors may subscribe either to the general fund, or, if they prefer it, to the local institute…. It would be a matter for general regret if any very large proportion of the contributors localised their money.
b. To identify with a particular locality or localities; to attach to particular districts.
1870. Daily Tel., 24 Nov., 4/6. The advocates for ‘localising’ the Army give us advice of the most valuable kind.
1872. Cardwell, in Hansard, Parl. Deb., 3rd Ser. CCIX. 895. The principles on which we propose to localize the Army.
c. To concentrate (attention) upon a particular spot.
1820. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XCII. 62. Localizing attention on the meritorious parts.
1861. Wynter, Soc. Bees, 493. Thus we may will that a spot in the skin shall itch, and it will itch, if we can only localize our attention upon the point sufficiently.
3. To attribute (in thought or statement) to a particular place or locality; to find or invent a locality for, ascertain or determine the locality of. Occas. const. to.
1816. G. S. Faber, Orig. Pagan Idol., II. 254. The mere vanity of local appropriation, similar to that by which they severally localized the history of the deluge and the appulse of the Ark.
1833. Wordsw., Fancy & Tradition. Thus everywhere to truth Tradition clings, Or Fancy localizes Powers we love.
a. 1849. H. Coleridge, Ess. (1851), II. 270, note. The Romans appropriated and localised every tale and tradition.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. i. § 12 (1864), 97. Part of the agreeable feeling in the exercise of the muscular organs … can be localised, or referred to the muscles actually engaged.
1868. Bain, Mental & Mor. Sci., 4. Descartes localized mind in the pineal gland.
1875. H. James, R. Hudson, vii. 232. It seemed to him that he had seen her before, but he was unable to localize her face.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 182. At first it was a somewhat difficult matter to discover the exact place of the fault, or, as it is termed, to ‘localise’ it.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 664. He was again attacked by intense headache, which could not be localised to any particular part of the head.
Hence Localizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1816. G. S. Faber, Orig. Pagan Idol., I. 397. The localizing humour of their religion.
1841. I. Taylor, Anc. Chr. (1842), II. vii. 841. In every system of polytheistic worship there has been a localizing of divinities.
1870. Ruskin, Lect. Art, ii. (1875), 57. Speaking exclusively of this localising influence as it affects our own faith.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xxiii. 354. Pain on firm pressure with the finger tips in an intercostal space … is a common and valuable localising sign [of liver abscess].
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 762. Any such localising symptoms as have been described.
