Word.ws English Dictionary

galvanized

galvanized is the alternative spelling of galvanised.

galvanized is the simple past and past participle of galvanize.

Meaning of galvanised

Adjective

galvanised (not comparable)

  1. (UK) Of metal, coated with zinc as a form of protection against rust.
    • galvanised pipes
    Synonyms:
    zinced
  2. (obsolete) Having been subjected to galvanism; electrified.
    • I go to London and see the busy multitudes in Fleet Street and the Strand, and it comes across my mind that they are but the ghosts of the past, haunting the streets that I have seen silent and wretched, going to and fro, phantasms in a dead city, the mockery of life in a galvanized body.1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 302

Meaning of galvanize

Verb

galvanize (third-person singular simple present galvanizes, present participle galvanizing, simple past and past participle galvanized)

  1. (broadly, dated, transitive) To coat with a layer of metal by electrochemical means.
    1. (broadly, dated, transitive, usually) To coat with a layer of zinc (for rust resistance) by electrochemical means.
      • We then galvanize the steel so that the zinc coating will sacrificially take the corrosion for many years.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To shock or stimulate into sudden activity, as if by electric shock.
    • The girl’s picture helped galvanize public opinion against the administration’s policy.
  3. (archaic, transitive) To electrify, as by galvanism.
    • The agitations resembled the grinnings and writhings of a galvanized corpse, not the struggles of an athletic man.1835, Thomas Babington Macaulay, History (essay in the Edinburgh Review)
  4. (US, historical, transitive) To switch sides between Union and Confederate in the American Civil War.
    • Reenactors called this “galvanizing,” the Civil War term for soldiers who switched sides during the conflict.1998, Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, 1st Vintage Departures edition, Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 10

Words formed from galvanized

Questions about galvanized

What is galvanized the alternative spelling of?
Galvanized is the alternative spelling of galvanised.

Words near galvanized in the dictionary

  1. galvanist
  2. galvanists
  3. galvanization
  4. galvanizations
  5. galvanize
  6. galvanized
  7. galvanizer
  8. galvanizers
  9. galvanizes
  10. galvanizing
  11. galvanizingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: galvanized (page history and authors); galvanised (page history and authors); galvanize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “galvanized.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/galvanized. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.