GENERALISE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Generalise

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verb

generalize v. t. (past & past part. generalized; pres. part. generalizing) (Also spelled generalise)

To bring under a genus or under genera; to view in relation to a genus or to genera. "Copernicus generalized the celestial motions by merely referring them to the moon's motion. Newton generalized them still more by referring this last to the motion of a stone through the air."

To apply to other genera or classes; to use with a more extensive application; to extend so as to include all special cases; to make universal in application, as a formula or rule. "When a fact is generalized, our discontent is quited, and we consider the generality itself as tantamount to an explanation."

To derive or deduce (a general conception, or a general principle) from particulars.

Synonyms: generalize, extrapolate, infer. "A mere conclusion generalized from a great multitude of facts."

To speak in generalities; to talk in abstract terms.

Synonyms: generalise, speak generally.

generalise v. Same as generalize.

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Etymology of 'Generalise'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Generalise" Quotes from Famous Books

... pertinence was very far from insistent; but Alicia's crude blush—everything else about her was so perfectly worked out—cried aloud that it was too sharp a pull up. "Perhaps though," Hilda hurried on with a pang, "we generalise too much ...

— The Path of a Star • Mrs. Everard Cotes (AKA Sara Jeannette Duncan)

... realm of one ends and that of the other begins, and add to it a wide knowledge of large affairs, which no special man can have, and which is only gained by diversified action. But this utility of leading minds used to generalise, and acting upon various materials, is entirely dependent upon their position. They must not be at the bottom—they must not even be half way up—they must be at the top. A merchant's clerk would be a child at a bank counter; but the merchant himself could, ...

— The English Constitution • Walter Bagehot

... and vicissitudes. He was no mere idealist or recluse to undervalue or despise the real grandeur of the world. He took the keenest interest in the nature and ways of mankind; he liked to observe, to generalise in shrewd and sometimes cynical epigrams. He liked to apply his powerful and fertile intellect to the practical problems of society and government, to their curious anomalies, to their paradoxical phenomena; he liked to address himself, either as an expounder or a reformer, to the principles ...

— Bacon - English Men Of Letters, Edited By John Morley • Richard William Church

... traits proper to persons, both living and dead, with whom I have had intercourse in society, should not have risen to my pen in such works as Waverley, and those which, followed it. But I have always studied to generalise the portraits, so that they should still seem, on the whole, the productions of fancy, though possessing some resemblance to real individuals. Yet I must own my attempts have not in this last particular ...

— The Antiquary, Complete • Sir Walter Scott

... all as dispassionately as one looks at a picture—at some wonderful, perfect sort of picture that is inexhaustible; but at the time these things filled me with unspeakable resentment. Now I go round it all, look into its details, generalise about its aspects. I'm interested, for example, to square it with my Bladesover theory of the British social scheme. Under stress of tradition we were all of us trying in the fermenting chaos of London to carry out the marriage ...

— Tono Bungay • H. G. Wells

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