See Also: neutralize(medicine)
neutralize(dictionary)
neutralize(dictionary)

neutralize (iou)



neutralize verb. Also neutralise. M17.
[In branch I from medieval Latin neutralizare, in branch II from French neutraliser, formed as NEUTRAL: see -IZE.]
I. verb intrans.
Remain neutral. Only in M17.
II. verb trans.
a. Make (an acidic or alkaline solution) chemically neutral. M18.
b. Eliminate a charge difference in; make electrically neutral. M19.
a. Counterbalance; make ineffective or void by an opposite force or effect. L18.
B. Hines Smoothing out the newspaper and rolling it the other way to neutralize the first curve. R. V. Jones Eckersley's evidence had neutralised itself, because he said one thing..before and now something quite different.
b. Ophthalmology. Annul the refractive power of (a lens) by combination with one or more other lenses (of known power). E20.
c. Electronics. Cancel internal feedback in (an amplifier stage, valve, or transistor) by providing an additional external feedback voltage of equal magnitude but opposite phase. E20.
d. Linguistics. Remove in a particular context the contrast or distinction between (phonemes, inflections, etc.). Chiefly as neutralized ppl adjective. M20.
e. euphem. Make (a person) harmless or ineffective; spec. kill. L20.
Exempt or exclude (a place) from the sphere of warlike operations. M19.
In motor rallying, exempt (a section of a course) from having to be covered at a set average speed, so that that section has no effect on the result of a race. E20.
neutrali'zation noun E19.
neutralizer noun (a) rare a person who adopts a neutral attitude; (b) a person who or thing which neutralizes something, a neutralizing agent: E17.