Definition of "crystallize" [crys•tal•lize]

• To cause to form crystals or assume a crystalline structure. (verb-transitive)
• To give a definite, precise, and usually permanent form to: The scientists finally crystallized their ideas about the role of the protein. (verb-transitive)
• To coat with crystals, as of sugar. (verb-transitive)
• To assume a crystalline form. (verb-intransitive)
• To take on a definite, precise, and usually permanent form. (verb-intransitive)

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.

• "_ I felt the idea crystallize, come home to roost, whatever the hell it is goofy ideas do."
• "Mr. Reesling was silent for a long time, letting the idea crystallize, so to speak."
• "According to Woese and colleagues, the Darwinian threshold is the point in evolutionary history when the three domains, Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya, "crystallize" (Woese's term, 1998) their cellular architectures, which then become refractory to HGT."