v. [f. as prec. + -IZE. Cf. mod.F. constitutionnaliser (Littré).]
1. trans. [f. the adj.] To make constitutional.
1831. Fraser’s Mag., 111. 443. Having endeavoured to constitutionalize Spain.
1859. Masson, Brit. Novelists, iv. 254. A wave of democratic revolution … constitutionalizing for a moment absolute governments.
2. intr. [f. the sb.] To take a ‘constitutional.’ colloq.
1852. Bristed, 5 Years Eng. Univ. (ed. 2), 19. The most usual mode of exercise is walking—constitutionalizing is the Cantab for it.
1871. Earle, Philol. Eng. Tongue, § 310. A walk for the sake of bodily exercise having been called a ‘constitutional,’ the verb constitutionalize was soon formed.
Hence Constitutionalizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1846. Mozley, Ess. (1878), 302. He could do nothing with his Constitutionalising Parliaments but dissolve them.
1848. Fraser’s Mag., XXXVII. 484. The constitutionalising of Rhenish Germany.
1888. W. Knight, Principal Shairp, 4. The daily routine of constitutionalising.
