English

Verb

delocalize ‎(third-person singular simple present delocalizes, present participle delocalizing, simple past and past participle delocalized)

1. To broaden the scope of something (to make it more global).
   • 1852, M. Guizot, History of the Origin of Representative Government in Europe:

     This combined view of the greatness of events and the feebleness of the human mind, never appears to startlingly distinct as upon the occurrence of those extraordinary crises, which, so to speak, entirely delocalize man, and transport him to a different sphere.

   • 1912, Second Annual Conference of the Committees on Agricultural Development and Education:

     This constant desire for what we do not have, delocalizes — drives from Maine its natives and sends them to alien soil — to California, and vice versa.

   • 2009, Mario Morroni, Corporate Governance, Organization and the Firm: Co-operation and Outsourcing in the Global Economy:

     The decision to delocalize implies moving abroad those phases which were once carried out within the company itself, or were delocalized domestically.

2. (chemistry) To contain an electron in an orbital that extends over several adjacent atoms.
   • 1939, Gerhard Herzberg, Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure: Electronic spectra and electronic structure of polyatomic molecules:

     In molecular orbital theory it is thus the fact that the 2p electrons become completely delocalized that causes the lowering of the energy and of the bond distance compared to the average of the values for single and double bonds.

   • 2007, Sason S. Shaik, A Chemist's Guide to Valence Bond Theory, page 279:

     This is shown in Input 10.6 for a calculation of D-BOVB type, in which the π spectator orbitals are allowed to delocalize.

   • 2012, J. Tauc, Amorphous and Liquid Semiconductors, page 278:

     The high field strength in the space charge region delocalizes the states adjacent to the mobility edges and moves these edges toward the gap center.

3. (biology) To remove from a locality.
   • 2012, Paul Bouissac, Circus as Multimodal Discourse: Performance, Meaning, and Ritual:

     Often, the wardens who happen to be nearby tranquillize the aggressive animal and delocalize it.

Related terms

• delocalization