depolarizev.
/dɪˈpəʊlərʌɪz/ transitive. To deprive of polarity; to reverse or destroy the effect of polarization.
a. Optics. To change the direction of polarization of (a polarized ray) so that it is no longer arrested by the analyser in a polariscope.
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1819 Edinb. Rev. 32 180 The light becomes depolarised.
1854 J. Scoffern in Orr's Circle Sci., Chem. 76 The interposition of the mica must have depolarized the ray.
b. To deprive of magnetic polarity. Also figurative.
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1860 O. W. Holmes Professor at Breakfast-table i To depolarize every fixed religious idea in the mind by changing the word which stands for it.
1866 E. Hopkins in Athenæum 22 Sept. 369/3 The iron is hard, and requires to be depolarized like a steel bar.
Derivatives
deˈpolarized adj.
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1860 O. W. Holmes Professor at Breakfast-table i Scepticism is afraid to trust its truths in depolarized words.
deˈpolarizing n. and adj.
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1818 W. Whewell in I. Todhunter William Whewell (1876) II. 31 The neutral and depolarizing axes.
depolariˈzation n. the action or process of depolarizing.
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1815 D. Brewster in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 105 29 (title) Experiments on the Depolarization of Light.
1871 B. Stewart Heat (ed. 2) §193 Forbes was able to prove the circular polarization and depolarization of heat.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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