canalize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make a canal or canals through.
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to convert into a canal.
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to divide (a stream) into reaches with locks or dams, usually to maintain navigable depths.
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to divert into certain channels; give a certain direction to or provide a certain outlet for.
verb
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to provide with or convert into a canal or canals
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to give a particular direction to or provide an outlet for; channel
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to divide a channel into separate reaches controlled by dams and weirs to aid navigation, control water levels, generate power, etc
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of canalize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Making music, “you are away, somehow, from real tragedies, but you can canalize everything that you are feeling and suffering from into something that becomes a moment,” Tanja continued.
From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2023
Some became conscious of the role a state could play in intervening in the economy in order to curb and canalize democracy.
From Slate • Apr. 7, 2017
The modern movement is a conscious effort to direct and canalize the stupendous energy of modern civilization between its proper architectural embankments.
From Time Magazine Archive
To have peace, the nations must forgo the urge to canalize to fixed ends the productive energies of private citizens.
From Time Magazine Archive
But we have to get intelligences together, we have to canalize thought before it can work and produce its due effects.
From In the Fourth Year Anticipations of a World Peace by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
