[f. L. ēmigrāt- ppl. stem of ēmigrā-re, f. ē out + migrā-re to MIGRATE.]
1. intr. To remove out of a country for the purpose of settling in another.
1778. Conversation, in Boswell, Johnson, lxii. (1848), 574. They don’t emigrate, till they could earn their livelihood … at home.
1782. Pownall, Stud. Antiq., 60 (T.). The surplus parts of this plethoric body always have and must emigrate.
1833. Wade, Middle & Working Classes (1835), 342. It is only the … redundant portion of the community that ought to emigrate.
1881. W. Bence Jones, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 137. In 1880, 96,000 persons emigrated from Ireland.
b. In wider sense: To remove from one place of abode to another. rare.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 352. The mountaineers … emigrate during the summer to the Tuscan coast.
2. trans. To cause or assist to emigrate; to send out to settle in a foreign country.
1870. C. B. Clarke, in Macm. Mag., Nov., 51/2. Pauper children … I would emigrate.
1886. Miss Rye, in Pall Mall Gaz., 20 April, 2. It is now twenty-five years since I first began to emigrate women.
