Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To modify, especially to increase, the rate of (a chemical reaction) by catalysis.
  • transitive verb To bring about; initiate.
  • transitive verb To produce fundamental change in; transform.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In physical chemistry, to act upon by catalysis: said of a substance which accelerates a chemical reaction while it is itself left unchanged at the end of the reaction.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb (chemistry) to cause (a chemical reaction) to proceed more quickly by contacting the reactant(s) with another substance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To bring about the catalysis of a chemical reaction.
  • verb transitive To accelerate a process.
  • verb transitive To inspire significantly by catalysis.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb change by catalysis or cause to catalyze

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From catalysis.]

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Examples

  • November 21st, 2006 at 1: 03 am bFast, the claim that proteins change the poise of equilibria of chemical reactions they catalyze is wrong.

    College professor: "Flunk the IDiots" 2006

  • With respect to the ecosystem comment, without getting into specifics of different options and things like that in detail, what I will say is that the word catalyze is to imply that there is a wide variety of participants in our world, and that includes competitors, it includes operators, other technology firms and so forth who in many respects have a common interest relative to the potential strength of other ecosystems and how they may develop over time.

    Nokia CEO Discusses Q4 2010 Results - Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha 2011

  • Operating out of Brooklyn, N.Y., since Sept. 4, the Web campaign is an attempt to send 100,000 first-time youth voters to the polls for the November election and "catalyze" 250,000 orgasms.

    Archive 2004-10-01 2004

  • MoA rightly likens the BPI to our old friends at The Project for a New American Century, who openly yearned -- back in September 2000 -- for a "new Pearl Harbor" that would "catalyze" the American people into supporting their militarist agenda (which included imposing a U.S. military presence in Iraq -- whether Saddam Hussein was still in power there or not).

    unknown title 2009

  • Donnelly's PNAC report -- a blueprint followed faithfully by the Bush Administration -- openly yearned for a "new Pearl Harbor" that would "catalyze" the American people into adopting PNAC's global militarist agenda wholesale.

    unknown title 2009

  • "As a general internist my aim has always been to 'catalyze' and enable the whole system to deliver excellent continuum-of-care for each and every patient.

    Newswise: Latest News 2010

  • "As a general internist my aim has always been to 'catalyze' and enable the whole system to deliver excellent continuum-of-care for each and every patient.

    Newswise: Latest News 2010

  • "As a general internist my aim has always been to 'catalyze' and enable the whole system to deliver excellent continuum-of-care for each and every patient.

    Newswise: Latest News 2010

  • My organization, WITNESS online at witness.org, which is dedicated to the use of video to document human rights abuses and the use of that video to catalyze change, and others are excited about this development.

    Witness: Human Rights Video Now: Opportunities and Challenges Witness 2011

  • As I write in The Nation in the October 24 issue, now on-line, If the Occupy Wall Street activists join forces with the unions and community groups, they could catalyze a massive nationwide movement to resist foreclosures and block evictions.

    Peter Dreier: Victory! Transforming Occupy Wall Street From a Moment to a Movement Peter Dreier 2011

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