English
canalise
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /kə.ˈnæl.aɪz/, /ˈkæn.ə.laɪz/
Verb

canalise (canalises, present participle canalising; past and past participle canalised)

  1. (transitive, British spelling) To convert (a river or other waterway) into a canal.
    • 2005, New Science Publications, New scientist, Volume 188
      Under Advance Brazil, the government plans to pave over 7000 kilometres of new Amazonian highways, canalise vast rivers and construct dozens of railways, […]
  2. (transitive, British spelling) To build a canal through.
  3. (transitive, British spelling) To channel the flow of.
    • 1927, Edith Wharton, Twilight Sleep, Virago: London, 1996,page 221
      On the desk lay the final version of the Birth Control speech, mastered and canalized by the skilful Maisie.
    • 1938, George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, Chapter 8,
      The workers' militias, based on the trade unions and each composed of people of approximately the same political opinions, had the effect of canalizing into one place all the most revolutionary sentiment in the country.
    • 1948, Sir Winston Churchill, The Second World War: The Gathering Storm, Page 373
      ...yet it is always a wise precaution in defending a frontier of hundreds of miles to bar off as much as possible by fortifications, and thus economise the use of troops in sedentary roles and "canalise" potential invasion.
Translations Translations

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.023
Offline English dictionary