v. [f. Gr. οἰκονόμ-ος (see ECONOMY) + -IZE.]
† 1. intr. To act as the governor of a household.
1648. Milton, Tenure Kings (1650), 41. The power … to … œconomize in the Land which God hath given them, as Masters of Families in their Houses.
† 2. trans. To arrange, constitute, organize. Obs.
1691. Beverley, Thous. Years Kingd. Christ, 12. Even so shall the Divine Person so Oeconomize and Model the Lustre of its [printed itt] Glory. Ibid., 18. The Throne of God … is so Oeconomiz’d as to be distinct.
3. To use sparingly; to effect a saving in.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 122. He is calculating how he shall economize time.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, vi. Napol., Wks. (Bohn), I. 371. He never economized his ammunition but … rained a torrent of iron … to annihilate all defence.
b. To procure the funds for anything by economy or saving. Somewhat rare.
1849–50. Alison, Hist. Europe, I. iii. § 82. 341. Her … charities … were economised from her own personal revenue.
4. intr. To practise economy; to spend money more sparingly than before.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 175. Œconomising on principles of justice and mercy.
1843. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., xl. (1883), I. 217. Light is one of the things I do not like to economise in.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, I. iii. (1852), 95. When wages fall … the poor … are obliged to economise.
5. trans. To turn to account, turn to the best account; to apply to industrial purposes.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, ix. 117. It must be for man’s advantage to economize this power.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, i. (1868), 6. How this labour may … be … economized, so as to produce the richest results.
1863. A. C. Ramsay, Phys. Geol. (1878), 606. Who knows … what motive powers may … be economised other than those that result from the direct application of heat.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 366. [Machinery’s] object is to economise force supplied from without.
Hence Economized ppl. a.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., vi. 106. Yet these are already economized alterations of something still more primitive.
