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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Naturalize

Năt′ū-ral-ize, v. t.

verbtransitive

(năt′yū-ral-īz), v. t. [imp. & p. p. NATURALIZED; p. pr. & vb. n. NATURALIZING.] [Fr. naturaliser. See NATURAL.]

  1. To make natural; to render easy and familiar by custom and habit; as, custom naturalizes labor or study.
  2. To confer the rights and privileges of a native subject or citizen on; to make as if native; to adopt, as a foreigner into a nation or state, and place in the condition of a natural born subject.
  3. To receive or adopt as native, natural, or vernacular; to make one's own; as, to naturalize foreign words.
  4. To adapt; to accustom; to habituate; as, to naturalize the vine to a cold climate.

Năt'ū-ral-ize, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. To explain phenomena by natural agencies or laws, to the exclusion of the supernatural.

We see how far the mind of an age is infected by this naturalizing tendency. H. Bushnell.

Nāt'ūr-ize, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. To provide with a nature or character; to endow with qualities. [Rare.] B. Jonson.