electrify

From electric +‎ -fy.

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɛktɹɪfaɪ/

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electrify (third-person singular simple present electrifies, present participle electrifying, simple past and past participle electrified)

1. (transitive) To supply electricity to; to charge with electricity.

   Synonyms: electricalize, electricize, electrize, energize, galvanize

   to electrify a cable

   • 2022 August 10, Philip Haigh, “Scotland switched on to electrification”, in RAIL, number 963, page 35:

     Those most rural routes will not get overhead wires. As Reeve told the seminar: "Even in my wildest dreams, I can't see a business case for electrifying the Far North Line."

2. (transitive) To cause electricity to pass through; to affect by electricity; to give an electric shock to.

   Synonyms: electricalize, electricize, electrize, galvanize, shock, zap

   to electrify a limb, or the body

3. (transitive) To adapt (a home, farm, village, city, industry, vehicle, railroad) for electric power.
   • 2020 May 20, Richard Clinnick, “Network News: Electrification key to decarbonisation”, in Rail, page 16:

     Baroness Randerson had asked if, following the publication of the Government's Decarbonising transport: setting the challenge report in March, there had been any consideration to electrify more rail lines - and if so, to prioritise routes between Cardiff and Swansea, in the East Midlands and in the Lake District. All had been planned for electrification before subsequently being cancelled.

4. (transitive) To strongly excite, especially by something delightful or inspiring; to thrill.

   Synonyms: galvanize, vitalize; see also Thesaurus:thrill

   Her performance in the play electrified the audience.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James II:

     If the sovereign were now to immure a subject in defiance of the writ of habeas corpus […] the whole nation would be instantly electrified by the news.

   • 1876, George Eliot, Daniel Deronda:

     Try whether she could electrify Mr. Grandcourt by mentioning it to him at table.

   • 2009 January 14, Ben Brantley, Jason Zinoman, “In Festival, Biography, Beckett and Blues”, in The New York Times:

     His poeticized version of a news flash about the advent of AIDS (the disease that killed his mother) electrifies, as it should, like unexpected lightning.

   • 2014 October 25, Jeff Gordinier, “In search of the perfect taco”, in T: The New York Times Style Magazine (international edition)‎, page 100:

     The trailblazing Oaxacan chef Alejandro Ruiz […] has spiked this black-bean sauce with a hidden depth charge of flavor: patches of foliage from a local avocado tree. The leaves electrify the sauce with an unexpected thrum of black licorice.

5. (intransitive) To make electric.

• electric
• electricity

• “electrify”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “electrify”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “electrify”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.