Identify | Mean of identify in English Dictionary

/aɪˈdɛntəˌfaɪ/

• Verb
• to know and say who someone is or what something is
1. She identified the dog as her lost pet.
2. He was able to correctly identify the mushroom.
3. The witness positively identified the suspect in the crime.
4. She was easily identified by what she was wearing. [=it was easy to see who she was because of what she was wearing]
5. He has a talent for identifying [=recognizing] good workers.
• to find out who someone is or what something is
1. The corpse was identified on the basis of dental records.
2. They could not identify the source of the quotation.
3. They had no difficulty in identifying the problem.
4. We began by identifying what we needed for the job.
5. We need to identify the causes of unemployment.
• to show who someone is or what something is
1. His clothes identified him as a clerk. [=his clothes showed that he was a clerk]
2. an identifying mark/feature [=a mark/feature that shows who someone is or what something is]

• to think of (something) as being the same as (something else)
1. It is a mistake to identify [=equate] being healthy with being thin.
• to think of (someone) as being very closely associated with (something)
1. She has always been identified with the civil rights movement.
2. These groups are identified with conservation.
• to think of yourself as having the same problems and feelings as someone
1. Many readers identify with the characters in her novels.
2. He could identify with the problems the athlete was having. [=he understood the problems because he had had similar problems himself]
• to say who you are
1. When the police asked his name, he refused to identify himself.