Create v.

Also 6–7 creat; pa. t. 5–6 creat(e, 6 Sc. creatt; pa. pple. 4–6 creat(e. [f. creāt- ppl. stem of L. creāre: see prec.

  The early instances are all of the pa. pple. (= L. creātus, It. creato), or the pa. t.; creat(e continued a true pple. to c. 1600, but already in 15th c. it varied with created, and in 16th c. we find the present create, with pple. creating, etc.]

  1.  trans. Said of the divine agent: To bring into being, cause to exist; esp. to produce where nothing was before, ‘to form out of nothing’ (J.).

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 144. Al be it that God hath creat [3 MSS. created] al thing in right ordre.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., I. (1495), 6. The creatour … fro the begynnynge of tyme creat … the creature … of no thynge, or of no matere precedent.

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 189. Wherefore poetes feyne hym … to haue create men of stones.

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 133/2. [He] that had created alle the world.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 201 b. He create & infuded that noble soule.

1535.  Coverdale, Gen. i. 1. In y^e begynnynge God created heauen and earth.

1591.  Jas. I., Poet. Exerc., L iij b. Praise him for that he creat hath The heauen, the earth, and all.

1611.  Bible, Ps. li. 10. Create in mee a cleane heart, O God.

1644.  Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 52. Wherefore did he creat passions within us?

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxxi. 190. To say the World was not Created … is to deny there is a God.

1862.  Max Müller, Sel. Ess. (1881), II. xx. 395. And the gods consulted a second time how to create beings that should adore them.

  b.  with complemental extension.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., III. ii. 39. Are you a god? would you create me new?

1611.  Bible, Isa. lxv. 18. I create Ierusalem a reioycing, and her people a ioy.

1732.  Pope, Ess. Man, I. 148. And what created perfect?

1862.  F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 143. God created man a moral creature.

  c.  absol.

1592.  Davies, Immort. Soul, vii. (1714), 46. To create, to God alone pertains.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 606. To create Is greater then created to destroy.

1851.  Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. App. 381. It is only for God to create without toil.

  2.  gen. To make, form, constitute, or bring into legal existence (an institution, condition, action, mental product, or form, not existing before). Sometimes of material works as fig. of 1.

1592.  West, 1st Pt. Symbol., § 46 D, A constitutiue Instrument creating … whereby any estate, propertie, power or obligation, not hauing any essence or being before, is newely raysed and created.

1612.  Davies, Why Ireland, etc. 281 (J.). With power to create a Manor, and hold a Court Baron.

1679.  Dryden, Troilus & Cr., Prol. 8. I found not, but created first the stage. Ibid. (1697), Virg. Georg., IV. 295. Thus make they Kings to fill the Regal Seat; And thus their little Citizens create.

1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 336. The word heirs is not necessary to create a fee simple.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 345. Those towns where wealth is created and accumulated.

1854.  Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 225. It is always necessary, before lighting the fire in the stove, to create a draught by heating the chimney.

  b.  absol.

1775.  Sheridan, Rivals, Pref. The imagination … becomes suspicious of its offspring, and doubts whether it has created or adopted.

1831.  Brewster, Newton (1855), II. xxvii. 400. The inspired genius which creates.

1852.  Robertson, Serm., 3rd Ser. xii. 147. The mason makes, the architect creates.

  c.  Of an actor: To be the first to represent (a part or rôle), and so to give it its character. [f. creer un rôle: see Littré, Hatzfeld.]

1882.  Stevenson, New Arab. Nts. (1884), 314. I have created … more than one important rôle.

1882.  Standard, 23 May, 4/2. Madame Christine Nilsson … at the Royal Italian Opera … when she will create Boito’s Opera Mefistofele.

  3.  To constitute (a personage of rank or dignity); to invest with rank, title, etc. Constr. to create a peer, to create a man a peer.

c. 1460.  Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., ix. Hugh Capite … wich tho was the myghtieste subgett off Ffraunce, and therfore create and callid Dux Ffranciæ.

1495.  Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 35. Preamb., The Kyngis Grace … created hym Duke.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 347. During the which [Parliament] he created two Dukes, a Marques and five Erles.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 20. Arise my Knights o’ th’ Battell, I create you Companions to our person.

1655–60.  Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 34/1. The Ephori were first Created about the sixth Olympiad.

c. 1670.  Wood, Life (1848), 51. He was … created bach. of arts.

1771.  Goldsm., Hist. Eng., III. 374. Edward Hyde … was now created a peer by the title of lord Clarendon.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., ii. 103. Opposition came from the very prelate whom Henry had created to enforce his will.

  4.  To cause, occasion, produce, give rise to (a condition or set of circumstances).

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., IV. i. 264. O Ceremonie … Art thou ought else but Place, Degree, and Forme, Creating awe and feare in other men?

1667.  Decay Chr. Piety, 350 (J.). Difficulties of their own creating.

1709.  Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 185. ’Tis only fit to create Mirth.

1873.  Black, Pr. Thule, xii. 190. She failed to create any profound impression.

1876.  J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk., I. I. i. 11. Position and climate create habits.