identifying

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i·den·ti·fy

(ī-dĕn′tə-fī′)

v. i·den·ti·fied, i·den·ti·fy·ing, i·den·ti·fies

v. tr.

a. To establish or recognize the identity of; ascertain as a certain person or thing: Can you identify what kind of plane that is? I identified the man at the next table as a famous actor.

b. Biology To determine the taxonomic classification of (an organism).

c. To ascertain as having a certain characteristic or feature: job candidates who are identified as overqualified; children who have been identified with hearing loss.

2. To consider as identical or united; equate: The Greek god Ares is identified with the Roman god Mars.

3. To associate or affiliate closely with: writers who are identified with modernism.

v. intr.

1. To consider oneself as sharing certain characteristics or attitudes as another: She identifies strongly with her grandmother.

2. To associate oneself with or admire something, such as a set of ideas: a language learner who identifies with a new culture.

3. To believe or assert that one belongs to a certain group or class: She identifies as a libertarian. He identifies as bisexual.

[Medieval Latin identificāre, to make to resemble : Late Latin identitās, identity; see identity + Latin -ficāre, -fy.]

i·den′ti·fi′a·ble adj.

i·den′ti·fi′a·bly adv.

i·den′ti·fi′er n.

Translations

anagrafico segnaletico

References in classic literature ?

I could be certain of nothing--not even of identifying the doctor's handwriting by the impression on the blotting-paper.

He would certainly be made use of by the officers for the purpose of identifying the companions whom he had betrayed; and I had the best reasons in the world to believe that he would rather assist in the taking of me than in the capture of all the rest of the coining gang put together--the doctor himself not excepted.

View in context

There was no possibility of identifying those decayed and distorted features with any living creature whom he had seen-- and, yet, he was conscious of feeling a vague and awful doubt which shook him to the soul.

Here surely was a chance--if any chance remained--of identifying the shocking relic of humanity which lay before him, the dumb witness of a crime

View in context

We propose," the learned counsel continued, "to read certain passages from the prisoner's Diary, in which the name signed at the end of the letter occurs more than once; and we may possibly find other means of identifying the writer, to the satisfaction of your lordships, before the Trial is over.

This witness was severely cross-examined as to the correctness of his recollection of the talk in the summer-house, and as to his capacity for identifying both the speakers.