Definition of "initialize" []

• Computer Science To set (a starting value of a variable). (verb-transitive)
• Computer Science To prepare (a computer or a printer) for use; boot. (verb-transitive)
• Computer Science To format (a storage medium, such as a disk). (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "My body tag has a onLoad attribute, which calls the initialize () function from my Javascript."
• "Since we want the FAQ model to be a proper Active Record class, we need to call the initialize function of the superclass first; the command to do this is simply super."
• "A callback on these tabs functions would be great, because I could call the initialize script after it's been loaded."