Dictionary

hostilize en · VERB

Etymology

From hostile + -ize.

Meanings

1. (archaic) To make hostile; to cause to become an enemy.
   • Protestants, who, considering the present Government, Catholic and clerical, think themselves obliged to hostilize it and make propaganda against it. 1903, United States Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, page 298:
   • 1794, Anna Seward, Letters of Anna Seward Letter 96, to Reverend T. S. Whalley. When England, Spain, Holland, and Russia united with the powers already hostilized against an impious nation, that had reduced robbery, murder, and profaneness to a cool and practical system, I thought there was the fairest prospect of their success .
   • March 4, 1815, Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis C. Grey, Esq. if they go on checking, irritating, injuring and hostilizing us, they will force on us the motto “Carthago delenda est”.

Forms