Meaning

(transitive) To settle (a place) with colonists, and hence make (a place) into a colony..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To settle (a place) with colonists, and hence make (a place) into a colony.
2. (transitive) To settle among and establish control over (the indigenous people of an area).
3. (intransitive) To begin a colony or colonies.
4. (transitive, social sciences, by extension) To intrude into and take over (the autonomy, experience, social movement, etc, of a less powerful person or group); to commandeer or appropriate.

Example Sentences

When you are colonized by dangerous bacteria their presence in your body does no damage. You become a reservoir for those little stinkers.

The administration finally sent a naval vessel to return the 368 survivors to the United States in 1864. This ended official efforts to colonize blacks.

To have our grief colonized to facilitate a racist political agenda was beyond offensive.

What disservice would be done if issues regarding sexualities in organisations were side-lined by a heteronormative impetus to colonise queer theory?

For slavery aimed not only to colonize black women's bodies, sex, and sexuality, to undermine her, it sought to subvert and destroy any authentic relationship between black women and black men as well as among black women themselves.

[…] suggesting that organisational discourses of heteronormativity cannot fully colonise gay sexualities and genders.

The burden of judgment imposed by the politics of respectability can easily colonize black minds.

These award-winning works of nature writing have extended and enhanced a genre that Jamie herself has criticised, describing it as “colonised by middle-class white men”.

Word Forms

• colonizes
• colonizing
• colonized
• colonise

Antonyms for colonize

Related Words

When Should You Use Colonize?

Use colonize when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

Practice This Word

Frequently Asked Questions