v. [f. CANAL sb. + -IZE: mod.F. canaliser was perh. the immediate source.]
1. trans. a. To cut a canal through; to furnish with canals. b. To make like a canal; to convert (a river) into a canal.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 142. This system of canalising Egypt.
1865. Times, 23 March, 10/6. The St. Lawrence … has been canalized for such parts of its course as were naturally unfit for navigation.
1870. Athenæum, 26 Feb., 299. We do not desire so to ‘canalize’ the Thames, as our neighbours have ‘canalized’ the Seine.
2. Phys. and Pathol.
1876. trans. Wagner’s Gen. Pathol., 199. The symptoms … of thrombosis disappear … if the thrombus is reabsorbed or is sufficiently canalized.
Hence Canalized ppl. a.
1855. Househ. Wds., XII. 54. The canalised river.
1885. Athenæum, 9 May, 605/2. Slowly descending the canalized Seine.
