concentre

Verb

concentre (third-person singular simple present concentres, present participle concentring, simple past and past participle concentred)

1. (UK, dated, intransitive) To come together at a common centre.
   • As from each angle of the Vault / Wherein thou lyeſt, a line is brought / Vnto the Kingly founders heart; / So vnto thee, from euery part, / See how our loues doe runne by line, / And dead, concenter in thy Shrine.1613, Henry Peacham, “To the Buried Prince” in The Period of Mourning, London: John Helme, signature D2, recto
   • Hence, […] whatsoever perfections or properties (except such as are purely personal) are attributed to any of these divine Persons, are the same in all, and may equally be attributed to every one; they being all and every one the same God, in whom all perfections concentre, or, rather, who is all...17th–18th century (reprinted 1850), William Beveridge, “The Sacerdotal Benediction in the Name of the Trinity”, reprinted in Twenty-six Sermons on Various Subjects Selected from the Works of the...

   Synonyms:

   converge

2. (UK, dated, intransitive) To coincide.
   • Are we not ſufficiently Brutes, to call that work brutiſh which begets us? […] All Opinions concenter in this, […]1686, Charles Cotton (translator), Essays of Michael, Seigneur de Montaigne, London: T. Basset et al., Book 3, Chapter 5, page 156
3. (UK, dated, transitive) To bring together at a common centre.
   • For one ſo rarely tun’d to fit all parts; / For one to whom eſpous’d are all the Arts; / Long have I ſought for: but co’d never ſee / Them all concenter’d in one man, but Thee.1648, Robert Herrick, “To the Most Accomplisht Gentleman, Master Edward Norgate, Clark of the Signet to His Majesty. Epig[ram].”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […]...
   • [T]hir bright officious Lamps, / Light above Light, for thee alone, as ſeems, / In thee concentring all thir precious beams / Of ſacred influence: […]1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature...
4. (UK, dated, transitive) To focus.
   • For an instant the gaze of the horror-stricken multitude was concentred on the ghastly miracle; […]1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 311
   • At Princess Paryli’s Ball two young men of singular elegance were observed by Diana, little though she concentered her attention on any figures of the groups.1885, George Meredith, chapter 14, in Diana of the Crossways, volume 1, London: Chapman & Hall, pages 294-295
5. (UK, dated, transitive) To condense, to concentrate.
   • Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, / Who never to himself hath said, / This is my own, my native land! […] The wretch, concentered all in self, / Living, shall forfeit fair renown, / And, doubly dying, shall go down / To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, / Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.1805, Walter Scott, “Canto Fifth”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC...
   • Ah, I wish you were of my humble temper: the more we limit and concentre happiness, the more certain, I think, we are of securing it—they who widen the circle, encroach upon the boundaries of danger; […]1829, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “In which the Hero Shews Decision on More Points than One—More of Isora’s Character is Developed”, in Devereux. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […]...