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, 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.

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

• (make someone increasingly aware of): familiarize

• sensitizing concept (sociology)

• desensitize
• sensitive
• sensitization

• publicize

• sensitize in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• sensitize in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• sensitize at OneLook Dictionary Search