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1. Having an allergy or peculiar or excessive susceptibility (especially to a specific factor)
   - allergic, hypersensitive, hypersensitized, hypersensitised [Brit], sensitised [Brit], supersensitive, supersensitized, supersensitised

1. Make sensitive or aware
   "He was not sensitized to her emotional needs"
   - sensitise [Brit], sensify, sensibilize, sensibilise [Brit]
    
2. Cause to sense; make sensitive
   "She sensitized me with respect to gender differences in this traditional male-dominated society"; "My tongue became sensitized to good wine"
   - sensitise [Brit]
    
3. Make sensitive to a drug or allergen
   "Long-term exposure to this medicine may sensitize you to the allergen"
   - sensitise [Brit]
    
4. Make (a material) sensitive to light, often of a particular colour, by coating it with a photographic emulsion
   "sensitize the photographic film"
   - sensitise [Brit]

See also: sensitization, sensitizer, susceptible

Type of: alter, change, modify

Antonym: desensitize

Encyclopedia: Sensitize