be characteristic of; " What characterizes a Venetian painting?"

describe or portray the character or the qualities or peculiarities of; " You can characterize his behavior as that of an egotist"; " This poem can be characterized as a lament for a dead lover"

To make distinct and recognizable by peculiar marks or traits; to make with distinctive features.

To engrave or imprint.

To indicate the character of; to describe.

To be a characteristic of; to make, or express the character of.

To describe by peculiar or essential qualities; to mark or distinguish; as, the Angora cat is characterized by long silky hair.

Characterization.

To give a character to: to describe by peculiar qualities: to distinguish or designate.

To give character to; to stamp or distinguish; to describe by peculiar qualities.

He was afterward dragged from among the dead, insensible and apparently lifeless, and conveyed to his tent, where his vigorous constitution, and that energetic vitality which seemed to characterize his race, triumphed over wounds whose severity rendered their cure almost miraculous. – Henry IV, Makers of History by John S. C. Abbott

The effort should be made accurately to characterize the author's style as a whole. – Elementary Guide to Literary Criticism by F. V. N. Painter

2533. It is a popular belief, and one most devoutly cherished by many nurses and elderly persons, that everybody must, at some time of their life, between birth and death, have an attack of thrush, and if not in infancy, or prime of life, it will surely attack them on their death- bed, in a form more malignant than if the patient had been affected with the malady earlier; the black thrush with which they are then reported to be affected being, in all probability, the petechae or purple spots that characterize the worst form, and often the last stage, of typhoid fever. – The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Isabella Beeton

To the government, and unconsciously to the masses of the people, Christian thought and truth and method necessarily characterize most of the laws, institutions and processes of India. – India’s Problem Krishna or Christ by John P. Jones

Sometimes there is not the love for the brethren that should characterize us. – Heart Talks by Charles Wesley Naylor

98. What should characterize the Narrative? – 1001 Questions and Answers on Orthography and Reading by B. A. Hathaway

Did this first and essential condition of any true competitive struggle characterize the competitive system of your day? – Equality by Edward Bellamy

We cannot conceive of it as presenting any one of the qualities which essentially characterize what we know as mind in ourselves; and therefore the word Mind, as applied to the supposed agency, stands for a blank. – Thoughts on Religion by George John Romanes

Otherwise Mr. Rowley I should be tempted to characterize such a statement as cruel. – The Altar Steps by Compton MacKenzie

" Art," writes one who knows, " is a mistress so beautiful, so high, so noble, that no phrases can fitly characterize her, no service can be wholly worthy of her." – If You Don't Write Fiction by Charles Phelps Cushing

These are more to be lamented and wondered at among philosophers, theologians, and men of science; the coolness, the patience, the benevolence, which ought to characterize their works, should at least moderate their jealousy and soften their disputes." – The Disowned, Complete by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

They seemed to be ashamed, and principally on my account, because I was talking nonsense, and nonsense which it was impossible to openly characterize as such. – The Moscow Census - From "What to do?" by Lyof N. Tolstoi

This seems to characterize the Northern Paiute of Oregon more accurately than the mounted buffalo- hunting Bannock of southeastern Idaho. – Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society by Robert F. Murphy Yolanda Murphy

A diffusive blur and an indiscriminately shifting suction characterize what we do not understand. – How We Think by John Dewey

He happily carried with him amid all struggles and disappointments, as well as successes in the making of a career, the buoyant, hopeful, companionable, and affectionate interests which characterize the ambitious senior who has just left college to take his plunge into the activities of life. – My Memories of Eighty Years by Chauncey M. Depew

Thus two things characterize genius; at first, the vivacity of the need it has of producing, then the power of producing; for the need without the power is only a malady that resembles genius, but is not it. – Lectures on the true, the beautiful and the good by Victor Cousin

At an early age they are familiar with all the rules of behaviour which characterize their after life and conduct. – The Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland

His conversation, too, soon betrayed a leaning to his personal interests, instead of being of that pure and elevated cast which should characterize the language of a statesman. – The Monikins by J. Fenimore Cooper

Quarrels, love passages, mutual assistance, and such instances as characterize human life, were ascribed to them. – The Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly

But even the gaiety of New Year is not to be compared with the perfect lightness and freedom of merriment that characterize some aspects of Vartavar, nor do any of the Christian folk festivals have the completeness of Vartavar. – Armenian Legends and Festivals by Louis A. Boettiger