naturalize

• POS: Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: nat=u=ral=ize

CIDE DICTIONARY

naturalize, v. t. [Cf. F. naturaliser. See Natural.].

•  To make natural; as, custom naturalizes labor or study.  [1913 Webster]
•  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 native subject.  [1913 Webster]
•  To receive or adopt as native, natural, or vernacular; to make one's own; as, to naturalize foreign words.  [1913 Webster]
•  To adapt; to accustom; to habituate; to acclimate; to cause to grow as under natural conditions.  [1913 Webster]

  "Its wearer suggested that pears and peaches might yet be naturalized in the New England climate."  [1913 Webster]

naturalize, v. i. 

•  To become as if native.  [1913 Webster]
•  To explain phenomena by natural agencies or laws, to the exclusion of the supernatural.  [1913 Webster]

  "Infected by this naturalizing tendency."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

naturalize, v. (also -ise)
1 tr. admit (a foreigner) to the citizenship of a country.
2 tr. introduce (an animal, plant, etc.) into another region so that it flourishes in the wild.
3 tr. adopt (a foreign word, custom, etc.).
4 intr. become naturalized.
5 tr. Philos. exclude from the miraculous; explain naturalistically.
6 tr. free from conventions; make natural.
7 tr. cause to appear natural.
8 intr. study natural history.

Derivative

naturalization n.

Etymology

F naturaliser (as NATURAL)

THESAURUS

naturalize

Americanize, Anglicize, acclimate, acclimatize, accommodate, acculturate, acculturize, accustom, adapt, adjust, admit, adopt, affiliate, assimilate, assimilate to, become, break, break in, bring to, case harden, change, change into, change over, condition, confer citizenship, confirm, convert, do over, domesticate, domesticize, establish, familiarize, fix, gentle, go native, habituate, harden, housebreak, inure, make, make over, orient, orientate, reconvert, reduce to, render, resolve into, reverse, season, shift, switch, switch over, tame, train, transform, turn back, turn into, wont

ROGET THESAURUS

naturalize

Habit

VB be wont, fall into a rut, fall into a custom, tread the beaten track, follow the beaten track, tread the beaten path, follow the beaten, stare super antiquas vias, move in a rut, run on in a groove, go round like a horse in a mill, go on in the old jog trot way, habituate, inure, harden, season, caseharden, accustom, familiarize, naturalize, acclimatize, keep one's hand in, train, get into the way, get into the knack of, learn, cling to, adhere to, repeat, acquire a habit, contract a habit, fall into a habit, acquire a trick, contract a trick, fall into a trick, addict oneself to, take to, get into, be habitual, prevail, come into use, become a habit, take root, gain upon one, grow upon one.

Location

VB place, situate, locate, localize, make a place for, put, lay, set, seat, station, lodge, quarter, post, install, house, stow, establish, fix, pin, root, graft, plant, shelve, pitch, camp, lay down, deposit, reposit, cradle, moor, tether, picket, pack, tuck in, embed, imbed, vest, invest in, billet on, quarter upon, saddle with, load, lade, freight, pocket, put up, bag, inhabit, domesticate, colonize, take root, strike root, anchor, cast anchor, come to an anchor, sit down, settle down, settle, take up one's abode, take up one's quarters, plant oneself, establish oneself, locate oneself, squat, perch, hive, se nicher, bivouac, burrow, get a footing, encamp, pitch one's tent, put up at, put up one's horses at, keep house, endenizen, naturalize, adopt, put back, replace.