v. Also -ise. [f. stem of L. colōn-us, colōn-ia and Eng. COLONY + -IZE; cf. mod.F. coloniser.]
1. trans. To settle (a country) with colonists; to plant or establish a colony in.
a. 1626. Bacon, Advt. touching Holy War, in 2nd Pt. Resuscitatio (1670), 36 (J.). The further Occupation, and Colonizing of those Countries.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., III. ix. They that would thus colonize the stars with Inhabitants.
1780. Coxe, Russ. Disc., 4. The Southern district was conquered and colonised.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, ii. (1870), 49. The descendant of Kadmos, who had colonised Thebes from Phœnicia.
absol. 1807. Southey, Espriella’s Lett. (1814), I. 252. It is a part of the English system to colonize with criminals.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., xix. (1876), 259. Though the government does not colonise, it watches over emigration.
2. To establish in a colony.
1816. Shelley, Lett. to Peacock, 28 July. These [seeds] I mean to colonize in my garden.
1840. L. Blanchard, in New Monthly Mag., LX. 411. The thousands of inthralled and helpless residents colonized north of Hyde-park.
3. intr. To form or establish a colony or settlement; to settle. Also transf. of animals and plants; cf. COLONIST 2.
1817. Byron, in Moore, Life (1844), 358/2. I write to you from the banks of the Brenta … where I have colonised for six months to come.
1829. Southey, in Q. Rev., XLI. 416. To colonize in Africa … was the first wish of his heart.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., II. ix. (ed. 2), 206. The former bird has tried two or three times to colonize.
Hence Colonized ppl. a., Colonizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1622. [see 1].
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 431. Our collonizd plantators there.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 169. The colonizing of the Indies, and the wars of Flanders, have much drained this country of people.
1805. Southey, in Ann. Rev., III. 70. An adventurous and colonizing people.
1859. De Quincey, Ceylon, Wks. XII. 3. This colonising genius of the British people appears upon a grand scale in Australia, Canada, and, as we may remind the else forgetful world, in the United States of America.
1880. A. R. Wallace, Isl. Life, xxiii. 479. The aggressive and colonising power of the Scandinavian flora.
