v. rare. [see -IZE. Cf. It. campioneggiare (Florio).]
† 1. intr. To play the champion. Obs.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. Vocation. With a Blunted blade, To Championize under a Tented shade As at your Tourneys.
1637. Heywood, Dial. Man-hater, Wks. 1874, VI. 190. To championise and wrestle.
2. trans. To act as champion of.
1840. Agn. Strickland, Queens Eng., III. 48. Louis duke of Orleans … undertook to championize her wrongs.
Hence Championism nonce-wd., action of championing; professed championship.
1837. Selma Free Press, 18 Nov., 3/1. This comes of making our legislative halls the arena of political championism.
1877. Academy, 10 March, 206/1. Matthew Arnold’s championism of Falkland … is just and excellent.
