sensitize

• sensitise

From sensitive +‎ -ize.

sensitize (third-person singular simple present sensitizes, present participle sensitizing, simple past and past participle sensitized)

1. To make (someone or something) sensitive or responsive to certain stimuli.
   • 1999, Michael A. Kaliner, “12: Anaphylaxis”, in Marianne Frieri, Brett Kettelhut, editors, Food Hypersensitivity and Adverse Reactions, page 257:

     Anaphylaxis is the syndrome elicited in a hypersensitive subject upon subsequent exposure to the sensitizing antigen.

   • 2002, Cecil Colwin, Breakthrough Swimming, page 117:

     Great emphasis should be placed on sensitizing the hands to the feel of the water, and the hands should remain sensitized throughout the workout. […] Swimmers should sensitize the hands at the beginning of every workout by swimming the first 200 meters with their fists tightly clenched.

   • 2015, Christopher James, The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, page 441:

     Again, I strongly recommend that you sensitize your collodion-coated plates in a tank, rather than a tray, as it is safer, cleaner, and more process-efficient.

2. To make (someone) increasingly aware of, in a concerned or sensitive way.

   Ever since the burglary, we've been more sensitized to home security issues.

   • 1974 April 13, “Media Message”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

     At least two stations have been sensitized towards the position gay media professionals […] have to take to protect their job security.

3. (transitive) To render capable of being acted on by actinic rays of light.

• (make someone increasingly aware of): familiarize

• sensitivize
• desensitize
• sensitive
• sensitization

• publicize

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