canalize

American  

[kan-l-ahyz, kuh-nal-ahyz] / ˈkæn lˌaɪz, kəˈnæl aɪz /

especially British, canalise

verb (used with object)

canalized, canalizing

1. to make a canal or canals through.

2. to convert into a canal.

3. to divide (a stream) into reaches with locks or dams, usually to maintain navigable depths.

4. to divert into certain channels; give a certain direction to or provide a certain outlet for.

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canalize British  

/ ˈkænəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to provide with or convert into a canal or canals

2. to give a particular direction to or provide an outlet for; channel

3. to divide a channel into separate reaches controlled by dams and weirs to aid navigation, control water levels, generate power, etc

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Other Word Forms

• canalization
  noun
• uncanalized
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of canalize

First recorded in 1850–55; canal + -ize

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

canalize canalized canalizing

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

To have peace, the nations must forgo the urge to canalize to fixed ends the productive energies of private citizens.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

Now, in the hypothesis we propose, the relation of vision to the visual apparatus would be very nearly that of the hand to the iron filings that follow, canalize and limit its motion.

From Creative Evolution by Arthur Mitchell

Our polluted, chopped up, canalized, dammed and damned rivers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2020

They do this to restore, to the fullest extent possible, the habitats of and —to put the natural curves back in canalized rivers, for instance, so the waters can flow as they once did.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 15, 2013

Into these cisterns they evidently canalized the rains, which descended by a trough from the hills and of which the supply was undoubtedly scant.

From The New Yorker ● May 6, 1955

Its avenues of attack canalized by a water-broken country, the Armored Force ran into traps, anti-tank posts.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the valley there were large meadows watered by trenches and separated by hedges; then, further on the river, which up to that point had been canalized, expanded into a vast marsh.

From The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 Boule de Suif and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant

Notwithstanding the work already done, such as canalizing and regulating the rivers, the erection of dams, &c., the problems of preventing inundations, and of reclaiming the marshes, have not yet been satisfactorily solved.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 8 "Hudson River" to "Hurstmonceaux" by Various

Improvements now under way in clearing and canalizing these rivers will add about five hundred miles of additional water-way.

From Commercial Geography A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges by Jacques W. (Jacques Wardlaw) Redway

He had swum with the tide of public sentiment in cardinal matters, instead of stemming or canalizing and guiding it.

From The Inside Story of the Peace Conference by Emile Joseph Dillon

Slowly and patiently they are canalizing the spirit that at once directs, energizes and safeguards its operation.

From Messages to America by Shoghi Effendi

It must be remembered that before the canalizing of the Thames the influence of the tide was perceptible at least as high as Staines, where was also a crossing-place of immemorial antiquity.

From Early Britain—Roman Britain by Edward Conybeare

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