galvanise

verbC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — frog sits at #2,219Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: galvanised, galvanising

To galvanise is to shock a group into sudden action. Galvanise a campaign.

The image is a current passed through a dead frog's leg, making it jump. To galvanise metal is a different thing entirely, coating steel in zinc against rust.

Definitions of galvanise

1verbgalvaniseTo shock a group into sudden action.C1
“The letter galvanised a village that had done nothing for years.”

galvanise is an action.

Also accepted in games: galvanize

Remember it

Galvani touched a dead frog's leg with metal and the leg jumped. To galvanise a room is to make it jump like that.

hooks ontofrog leg jump

Where it comes from

From Luigi Galvani, who made frogs' legs twitch with electricity in the 1780s.

French
galvaniser
English, today
galvanise

From French galvaniser, from galvanisme, named after Luigi Aloisio Galvani. by surface analysis, galvano- + -ise.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

galvanise in the wild

Athlone helped galvanise the Canadian war effort and was a host to British and American statesmen during the Second World War.
Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone
Considered a heroic effort by Indonesians, the battle helped galvanise Indonesian and international support for Indonesian independence. 10 November is celebrated annually as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).
Battle of Surabaya
Collins kicked six goals in their round 10 match against North Melbourne, which was said to "galvanise the side" and led ultimately to the 1945 premiership.
Lance Collins
Jacobs, and the first editorial of this new newspaper tried to galvanise public opinion around a new nationalism.
History of Jamaican newspapers
Bina Cursiter was a Scottish suffragist, who played a leading role in Orcadian Women's Suffrage Society, and helped to galvanise the organised women's movement in Orkney.
Bina Cursiter

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the galvaniser family

galvanised

galvanise — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

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