v. Obs. [f. CANTON sb.1 + -IZE.]
1. trans. To divide into portions or parts; ‘to parcel out into small divisions’ (J.); to form into cantons.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. III. (1641), 217/1. To Cantonize the State.
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc. (1787), 103. And thus was all Ireland cantonized among ten persons of the English nation.
1701. Argument for War, 20. An unwarrantable reason for cantonizing the Spanish Territories.
1807. G. Chalmers, Caledonia, I. I. ii. 57. Those kindred countries were each cantonized into many tribes.
b. To cantonize out: to separate.
a. 1670. Hacket, Cent. Serm. (1675), 818. God cantonized out for himself but Twelve Families or Tribes out of all the Kingdoms of the Earth.
2. intr. To separate (oneself) into, or form, an independent community. Also to cantonize it. Obs.
1605. Raleigh, Introd. Hist. Eng. (1693), Introd. 6. Whether any parties did Cantonize, or were free Estates, or Common-wealths.
1611. [see CANTON v. 3].
1711. Shaftesb., Charac., II. § 2 (1737), I. 113. To cantonize is natural; when the Society grows vast and bulky.
1809. Edin. Rev., XIII. 458. As long as this power, with all its weaknesses and vices of construction, stood erect, the equipoise could not have been entirely lost, nor the Continent cantonized into dependent principalities.
3. trans. To canton (troops); to locate.
1626. T. H[awkins], trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 127. The Diuells and Furyes were cantonnized.
c. 1674. Scotland’s Grievances under Lauderdale, 36. Neither is he content to have thus cantonized those [ministers] that were licensed.
Hence Cantonized ppl. a., Cantonizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1611. [see CANTONED 1].
1651. Davenant, Gondibert (1673), Pref. 4. Their cantonizing in Tribes.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac., II. § 2 (1737), I. 113. Sedition is a kind of cantonizing already begun within the State.
