Dictionary

canalise en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈkæn.ə.laɪz/
• /kəˈnæl.aɪz/

Etymology

From canal + -ise.

Meanings

1. (UK, transitive) To convert (a river or other waterway) into a canal.
   • Under Advance Brazil, the government plans to pave over 7000 kilometres of new Amazonian highways, canalise vast rivers and construct dozens of railways, […] 2005, New Science Publications, New scientist, volume 188:
   • . . . owing to the recent commencement of works about to be carried on on a large scale to improve and canalise the navigation of the Ebro . . . 1854, David Thomas Ansted, Scenery, Science and Art: being extracts from the note-book of a geologist and mining engineer:
2. (UK, transitive) To build a canal through.
3. (UK, transitive) To channel the flow of.
   • ...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. 1948, Sir Winston Churchill, The Second World War: The Gathering Storm, page 373:
   • On the desk lay the final version of the Birth Control speech, mastered and canalized by the skilful Maisie. 1927, Edith Wharton, Twilight Sleep, London: Virago, published 1996, page 221:
   • 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. 1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter VIII, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

decanalise · recanalise · canalisation

Translations (27)

pl skanalizować (to convert into a canal) · hu vezet (to channel the flow of) · nb kanalisere (to channel the flow of) · de kanalisieren (to channel the flow of) · pl kanalizować (to convert into a canal) · ro canaliza (to convert into a canal) · hu terel (to channel the flow of) · id membuat kanal (to build a canal through) · pl skanalizować (to build a canal through) · sv kanalisera (to convert into a canal) · id menganalkan (to convert into a canal) · nb kanalisere (to convert into a canal) · pl ukierunkować (to channel the flow of) · nn kanalisere (to convert into a canal) · nn kanalisere (to channel the flow of) · da kanalisere (to channel the flow of) · hu irányít (to channel the flow of) · sv kanalisera (to channel the flow of) · pl kanalizować (to build a canal through) · ga treoraigh (to channel the flow of) · de kanalisieren (to convert into a canal) · hu csatornáz (to build a canal through) · da kanalisere (to convert into a canal) · hu összpontosít (to channel the flow of) · hu folyat (to channel the flow of) · pl ukierunkowywać (to channel the flow of) · id menyalurkan (to channel the flow of)