Definition of "specialize"

To make distinct or separate from what is common, particularly:

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To go into specific details.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Firſt laſh the Great-ones ; but, if thou be wiſe, / In generall, and doe not ſpeciallize : / Yet, if thou doe, ſo wiſely let it be, / None may except but thoſe that faulty be.

     1613, George Wither, “The Scourge”, in Juvenilia, page 334

2. (rare, transitive) To specify: to mention specifically.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Our Sauiour specialising and nominating the places in which these false prophets should teach his presence to be.

     1616, Richard Sheldon, A Survey of the Miracles of the Church of Rome, Proving Them to be Antichristian, section 261

3. (uncommon, transitive) To narrow in scope.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • He is at moſt a confuſed and wild Chriſtian, not ſpecialized by any form, but capable of all.

     1628, John Earle, Micro-Cosmography: Or, A Piece of the World Characterized, Salisbury: E. Easton, published 1786, page 121

4. (biology, transitive) To make distinct or separate due to form or function.  quotations

   Quotations

   • In the lowest orders of being, we find these functions very much blended together, and several of them apparently performed by one simple apparatus ; but in proportion as we rise in the scale, we perceive that they are specialized, or separated from each other, and that a complicated set of organs is appropriated to each of them.

     1835 October, “On the Structure and Functions of the Organs of Respiration”, in West of England Journal, volume I, number IV, page 218

   • Those who insist that a woman’s place is at home by divine decree need only to study the life of primitive man to find out how very human are some of our domestic customs, for they will then see this distinction, that while nature has specialized woman for child-bearing, it is society which has specialized her for housework.

     1911 September, Laura Clarke Rockwood, “Food Preparation and Its Relation to the Development of Efficient Personality in the Home”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume LXXIX, pages 281–2

(intransitive) To become distinct or separate from what is common, particularly:  quotations

1. To focus one's study upon a particular skill, field, topic, or genre.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Also, to their honour be it said, they will not allow their scholars to specialize, and, with four hours of mathematics a week, even a Newton would not go up to Cambridge knowing much.

     1881 March 1, “Occasional Notes”, in Journal of Education (new), number 37, page 51

2. To focus one's business upon a particular item or service.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Firms... which have specialised in the manufacture of ‘heavies’...

     1908 March 27, Pall Mall Gazette, 12/3

   • Blackhead: I might look you up myself one of these days. Do you specialise at all, like?Penny Guy: Yeah. Verbal abuse and colonic irrigation.

     1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1

3. (usually derogatory) To be known or notorious for some specialty.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Watson specializes in adiposeness; none of his chorus beauties may be considered featherweights.

     1923 November 14, Evening Independent, Massillon, Ohio, 5/3

(transitive) To train (someone) in a specialty.  quotations  examples