mobilize
Formsmobilizes, mobilizing, mobilized
UK spellingmobilise
- 1To assemble troops and their equipment in a coordinated way so they are ready for war.
Orders came down to mobilize the reserves and move supplies toward the border.
The general staff mobilized three divisions in less than a month.
Similarmuster, marshal, assemble, activate, rally
Oppositedemobilize, disband
- 2To make preparations for war, as a nation or its armed forces.
Neighboring states may mobilize in response to troop movements along their borders.
Within days of the ultimatum, the entire nation had mobilized.
Oppositedemobilize, disarm
Note
Here the verb stands without an object: the troops or the nation are the ones getting ready, not the ones being readied. Compare the transitive military sense, where a general staff mobilizes its divisions. In this use the country itself mobilizes. The two are easy to blur, but the test is simple: if nothing follows the verb, this is the meaning in play.
- 3To make something mobile; to give it the capacity for movement.
Physical therapists mobilize injured shoulders through slow, controlled rotations.
Mounting the generator on a trailer mobilized it for use across the entire site.
Oppositeimmobilize
Note
The literal sense behind the military ones: the verb came into English from French mobiliser, and here it simply means giving movement to something that lacked it, such as a stiff joint or a heavy machine. It always takes an object. The -ize spelling is standard in American English and is also the Oxford house style in British English, so it reads correctly on either side of the Atlantic.
Practice
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Origin
This word comes from the French "mobiliser."