1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Realiser, to realize, to make of a reall condition, estate, or propertie; to make reall.

1661 J. Glanvill Vanity of Dogmatizing 22 It will be as hard to apprehend, as that an empty wish should remove mountains; a supposition which, if realized, would releave Sisyphus.

1684 T. Hockin Disc. God's Decrees 322 We shall but make up the story of Icarus, and realize the fable.

1742 E. Young Complaint: Night the Third 33 Rich Death, that realizes all my Cares, Toils, Virtues, Hopes; without it, a Chimera!

1755 S. Johnson Let. 30 Dec. (1992) I. 117 Designs are nothing in human eyes till they are realised by execution.

1763 J. Brown Diss. Poetry & Music v. 46 In Support of the Truth of these Deductions, let us now endeavor to realize them; by shewing that such Consequences did in Fact arise in ancient Greece.

1812 Duke of Wellington in Sporting Mag. 39 6 Nor has the experience of any officer realized the stories which all have read.

1845 J. R. McCulloch Treat. Taxation iii. ii. 427 These expectations were rarely realized.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 154 Ideals are none the worse because they cannot be realized in fact.

1920 A. Carnegie Autobiogr. ix. 128 He was one of the few Americans who then lived in the grand style of a country gentleman, with..a home that realized what one had read of the country life of a nobleman in England.

1957 A. E. Stevenson New Amer. III. ii. 104 We cannot produce overnight an abundance of modern, well-lighted school buildings with plenty of capable and devoted teachers, where every child is free to realize his best self.

1980 Black Bull. Mar.–Apr. 1 Many Russians will die before they realize a conquest of the people of Afghanistan.

2004 Manch. Evening News (Nexis) 17 Feb. (Business section) 14 Our expansion plans couldn't be realised without more funding.

1736 E. Smith Cure of Deism II. xvi. 30 The Christian Hope is establish'd upon the sure Basis of glorious Rewards in a future life; which Faith..from the Fall of Man, is realized into a Substance like their own Home.

1741 J. Chapman Eusebius II. i. 100 It was usual with the great Prophets of old..to speak of things future, and at the Distance of several Ages, as Events then present, or already past, signifying..how Things appear to the Omniscient Divinity, not under our Measures of Time and Successions of Ideas, but instantly realized, as it were, into Facts.

1817 Times 31 Oct. 2/5 In little better than three years, their scene of merriment has been realized into one of melancholy!

1872 J. R. Lowell Dante in Prose Wks. (1890) IV. 207 His instinct as a poet..realized her into woman again.

1910 Math. Gaz. 5 245 Its aspiration, so far as aspiration can be realised into achievement, is co-operation between teachers of mathematics and teachers of physical science.

1999 Med. Anthrop. Q. 31 289 The political mythology realized into permanent physiognomic attitudes.

1781 R. B. Sheridan Critic ii. ii Dangle. Well, that will have a fine effect. Puff. I think so, and helps to realize the scene.

1859 H. W. Longfellow Hyperion ii. viii He [sc. Goethe] does not so much idealize as realize.

1865 tr. D. F. Strauss New Life Jesus II. ii. lxxxii. 299 The introduction of features that tend to realize and strengthen his account.

1885 J. E. Harrison Stud. Greek Art vii. 305 There the artist seemed well-nigh compelled to realism, and after all he has realized ideally.

1961 Tulane Drama Rev. 5 iii. 123 It's one thing, as in Scene 5, to underline what is not yet manifest, another to realize the scene, the whole crisscrossing motion of motives.

2003 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 8 Feb. 2 b Rick Criswell's costumes, from Boy Willie's rural work duds to Lymon's uptown purple silk suit, help realize the characters Wilson and the actors have created.

1937 C. Caudwell Illusion & Reality v. 97 If only they could realise themselves..this would of itself ensure the freedom of all.

1957 L. P. Hartley Hireling xv. 118 She seems to have realized herself, become a person in her own right.

1991 Henry James Rev. 12 20 Henry James, like us all, spent his days (and nights) attempting to realize himself, to make exigent who he was and could be.

1646 H. Lawrence Of Communion & Warre with Angels 146 A lively faith realizeth things, and makes them present.

1652 T. Watson Christian's Charter 272 Could we thus living up to the height of our faith, reallize and antedate things to come, how would all present things vanish!

1661 T. Hall Expos. Prophecy Amos v. 304 Realize dangers as if they were present, that will help to awaken us.

1708 J. Earle Sacramental Exercises vi. 92 I would affectionately remember his Kindness in enabling me to realize invisible Things.

1750 S. Johnson Rambler No. 60. ⁋1 An Act of the Imagination, that realises the Event however fictitious, or approximates it however remote.

1798 Geraldina II. 235 I conjure up frightful forms which my imagination realizes.

1852 H. Mayo Pop. Superstitions (new ed.) xi. 199 The patient laughed heartily at the idea of the distant somnambulist having so completely realized him.

1888 Harper's Mag. Apr. 806/1 To a certain degree the story realizes him.

1971 Bull. School Oriental & Afr. Stud. 34 569 The effort to realize the scene concretely inside one's head and the pleasure of discovering more and more in it will sometimes effect an astonishing improvement in one's English.

1995 Times (Nexis) 14 Jan. An atmospheric reading which beautifully realises the fantastic and sensual power of Genet's story about an adolescent murderer's imaginations as he is taken to his execution.

1648 T. Hill Spring of Grace 31 We must use the Scriptures, as we use Pictures..use Pictures for a while, till we get apprehension of the thing or person realized to us, then throw them away.

1654 R. Baxter Apol. against T. Blake & G. Kendall 130 Its true that Faith may be said, as you speak, to Realize salvation to the Soul.

1682 J. Flavell Pract. Treat. Fear (new ed.) iv. 37 It is the use..of Faith to reallize to the Soul the invisible things.

1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 4 It was..so realiz'd to me, that..I could not be persuaded, but that it was or would be true.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison VI. xxxii. 216 Whence, my dear, proceed these ideal vagaries, which..realize pain or pleasure to us, according to their hue or complexion, or rather according to our own?

1830 Monthly Repos. Nov. 734 An incident..which forcibly realizes to the mind the misery and degradation inflicted on every rank of society by a despotic..government.

1870 R. W. Emerson Society & Solitude 94 The child realizes to every man his own earliest remembrance.

1909 C. H. Cooley in Public Opinion Q. (1973) 37 537 We may read statistics of the miserable life of the Italians and Jews in New York and Chicago..but we care little more about them than we do about the sufferers from the Black Death, unless their life is realized to us in some human way.

1939 R. Odell Helen Hunt Jackson iv. 145 At Elspeth's departure Blake determines to try an experiment and under compulsion of some artistic urge not clearly realized to the reader, plunges off to Italy.

1658 T. Hall Pract. Comm. Third & Fourth Chapters Paul to Timothy 322 Let's realize that day to our selves.

1702 H. Swarton in C. Mather Magnalia Christi vi. iii. 18/2 Let us now realize unto our selves that Great and Notable Day of the Lord.

a1740 T. Steffe Serm. (1742) iii. 60 Let us now realize to ourselves this invisible Reality.

1778 A. Hamilton Let. 13 Feb. in Papers (1961) I. 427 Realize to yourself the consequences of having a Congress despised at home and abroad.

1842 T. Arnold in Life & Corr. (1844) II. 313 Strengthen my faith, that I may realize to my mind the things eternal.

1867 W. D. Howells Ital. Journeys 170 They might thus realize to themselves something of the earnestness which animated the elder Christian artists.

1915 Sesquicenntenial Brown University 1764–1914 214 Only a small gift of historic imagination is needful to enable even those who are not professed historians to realize to themselves the onward march of human affairs.

1737 J. Edwards Faithful Narr. Surprizing Work God 85 They never realized it, that Persons were wont to meet with Difficulties, after they were once converted.

1781 J. Newton Cardiphonia I. 90 Even these are much concerned to realize the brevity and uncertainty of their present state.

1781 P. Schuyler in J. Sparks Corr. Amer. Revol. (1853) III. 281 My heart realizes your feelings on the occasion, and cordially sympathizes with yours.

1819 W. Irving Sketch Bk. i. 49 She cannot realize the change we must undergo.

1841 G. Combe Notes U.S. I. 28 It is difficult to ‘realize’, as the Americans express it, the idea of being so far from home.

1842 Mrs. C. Dickens Let. 22 Mar. in C. Dickens Lett. (1974) III. 150/1 I daresay you can hardly realize (a favourite expression here) seeing Peach trees in full blossom in March.

1891 E. Peacock Narcissa Brendon I. xiv. 229 When her mother died she was too young to realize the situation.

1916 H. Walpole Dark Forest ii. iv. 269 The moment I realized him I felt afraid.

1958 P. Gibbs Curtains of Yesterday 55 These society women..seemed..too content with the busy details of their own activities. Did they ever realize the agony and the horror of what was happening across the Channel?

1972 Times 15 Aug. 10/5 [He] will suddenly realize the error of his ways.

1742 C. Chauncy New Creature Described & Considered 29 Look upon the Divine Spirit as sovereign in the Kingdom of Grace, and realize that he may dispense the Grace of God, as to whom he will.

1775 A. Adams in J. Adams & A. Adams Familiar Lett. (1876) 68 Can they realize what we suffer?

1817 Baroness Bunsen in A. J. C. Hare Life & Lett. Baroness Bunsen (1879) I. v. 117 I never could have realised that I should have borne the parting..so well.

1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin II. xxvi. 109 For so bright and placid was the farewell voyage of the little spirit..that it was impossible to realize that it was death that was approaching.

1891 A. C. Swinburne Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894) 17 Scott..evidently failed to realize how far superior is Clara Mowbray to all his other heroines.

1920 D. H. Lawrence Lost Girl xi. 291 She realised she must do something—take some part in the wild dislocation of life.

1962 E. Roosevelt Autobiogr. II. xiii. 111 They were too young and too inexperienced to realize that they were offered these jobs only because of their name and their father's position.

1989 A. C. Amor William Holman Hunt x. 149 His father owned that despite his initial fears, he had finally realized that Hunt had been right to become a painter.

1896 ‘M. Field’ Attila ii. 47 It is also yours [sc. his fate]. You realise—Torture and then the executioner..but torture first.

1980 M. Bail Homesickness ii. 126 A lot of this talk is hogwash. It's time people realized.

1996 M. Burgess Junk (1997) xvi. 148 I went out as soon as I realised.

2001 C. Glazebrook Madolescents 131 Then I realised. It was... it was brains!

1720 Let. to Mr. ***** New Syst. Finances ii. 20 Would they be so wise, as to resolve, with one Accord, to Realize all their Lands and Houses, and convert them into Money?

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Realise, in Commerce, a Term little known in Trade before the Year 1719, when those immense Fortunes began to be made..by the Business of Actions or Stock. By Realising, is meant the Precaution many of those who had gain'd most, took, to convert their Paper into real Effects, as Lands, Houses, rich moveables, Jewels, Plate.

1768 Woman of Honor III. 225 Substantial securities..to be realised and converted into cash.

1799 E. Dubois Piece Family Biogr. I. 25 One more voyage I must make, to realize the property I have in that quarter of the globe.

1848 J. S. Mill Princ. Polit. Econ. I. Prel. Rem. 5 When he retires from business it is into money that he converts the whole, and not until then does he deem himself to have realized his gains.

1894 H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Romance 21 Realizing what he could of his impoverished estates, and emigrating to Australia.

1927 Times 10 Mar. 22/1 Since the date of the present balance-sheet the £50,000 4 per Cent. National War bonds have been realized.

1964 F. Tuohy Ice Saints (1965) ii. 10 Legally any property, monies..etcetera owned by a national abroad must be realized and transferred into local currency.

1988 M. Binchy Silver Wedding vi. 150 His client was willing to realize most of his assets in order to provide for his wife and eldest daughter.

2006 Financial Times (Nexis) 18 Feb. 8 Isis UK Select is trading at a 12 per cent discount, but the board has declared that shareholders will have the chance to realise shares at a discount of not less than 5 per cent in 2007.

1781 J. Bentham Let. 25–28 Aug. in Corr. (1971) III. 60 Caron de Beaumarchais has realized..to the tune of £S 30 or 40,000 a year.

1848 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis (1850) I. ii. 10 He realised with great prudence while this mine was still at its full vogue.

1887 R. Lodge Mod. Europe (1897) xxii. §12. 510 On application the holder of one of these assignats could realise in land.

1720 A. Hutcheson Coll. Calculations S. Sea Scheme 63 It is very evident, that this Capital..can only be intrinsically worth the 42 Millions secured on the Publick Funds, and so much more as can be realized on other Funds.

1736 in A. Pope Wks. II. ii. iii. 34 The two Persons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the time of the Missisipi despis'd to realize above three hundred thousand pounds.

1753 J. Hanway Hist. Acct. Brit. Trade Caspian Sea II. xxxi. 185 About four millions of dollars might be realized with great ease.

1775 S. J. Pratt Liberal Opinions (1783) III. lxxii. 46 You, sir, who have realized a fortune.

1802 E. Parsons Myst. Visit III. 166 Thus happily realizing a sum far beyond her expectations.

1819 Times 25 May 1/6 He would ask..whether 50 per cent. had been realized on the minimal amount of our exported commodities.

1842 Times 3 May 6/3 By allowing..the merchant to have it [sc. salt] removed at once to his own godowns, upon depositing with Government Company's paper to the amount of the duty..time is given to realize upon the venture.

1847 J. W. Carlyle Let. 6 Mar. in New. Lett. (1903) I. 224 I have been extremely lucky..in realizing so..respectable a servant out of the great sink of London.

1895 Cent. Mag. Sept. 674/1 He's staked out with a pretty short rope, unless he's realized on some of his claims.

1925 W. Cather Professor's House ii. vi. 244 ‘Did you ever think I was digging those things up for what I could sell them for?’ Rodney explained that..he'd always supposed I meant to ‘realize’ on them, just as he did, and that it would come to money in the end.

1929 Times 13 Dec. 26/7 In explanation of the differences between the alleged value of the shares and the prices realized, it was stated that the securities were doubtful or ‘suspect’.

1987 R. Pilcher Shell Seekers xv. 485 Accordingly, we decided that everything should be sold, and the sum realised divided among you all.

2007 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 29 Mar. c5 I wanted to find a business I could follow the processes and procedures and be pretty much assured of realizing a profit.

1777 S. Clark Let. to R. Price 6 Nor can all the interest in the universe ever realize one shilling of specie, it only transfers property from one hand to another.

1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 379/2 By careful crossing with a Galloway cow an improved breed was produced, which was in such repute that..48 lots of bulls, cows, and calves realized 115l. 17s.

1863 H. Fawcett Man. Polit. Econ. iii. ii. 313 There would evidently be a much greater demand for them than if the same pictures realised a hundred guineas each.

1885 Law Times Rep. 52 647/1 His duty was to see that the property realised its full value.

1960 S. Unwin Truth about Publisher ii. xvii. 317 When there is a showdown it is astonishing how little stock realizes, as any liquidator or receiver with experience would readily confirm.

1990 J. Berger Lilac & Flag (1992) 39 One day, a few minutes before a large sale was about to start, an auctioneer found Clement asleep on an eighteenth-century four-poster bed which, it was hoped, would realise fifteen million.

1873 Times 12 July 7/3 The liabilities are estimated at 100,000l., but the estate is expected to realize well.

1884 Leeds Mercury 27 Nov. 4/4 The liabilities are estimated at £130,000, and the assets will, it is assumed, realise well.

1889 Pottery Gaz. Oct. in J. Ellis Glassmakers of Stourbridge & Dudley (2002) 505 The estate realised badly due to..[the] wretched condition of the stock.