legitimize

legitimize
legitimate, legitimize
1. As a verb, legitimate is pronounced with the last syllable as -ayt and means ‘to make legitimate or legal’. It competes in both BrE and AmE with legitimize, which is the only form used in the meaning ‘to make (a child) legitimate’:

• My companion had up his sleeve something that would legitimate his employing my Christian name —J. I. M. Stewart, 1974

• You…forget the very people who legitimize your authority —Chinua Achebe, 1987

• This exhibition helps legitimize the last quarter century's most incontrovertible cultural phenomenon —Sunday Herald, 2000

• Citizens of the New World sought to legitimate young democratic nations by recalling a grander, classical past —C. Freeland, 2003

• She raised the present action [in 1827] that the defender, having been born a bastard in England, where the…subsequent marriage of the parents does not legitimize offspring, therefore should be held to be a bastard still —Times, 2007.

2. For legitimate as an adjective, see legal.

Modern English usage. 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • legitimize — le‧git‧i‧mize [lɪˈdʒɪtmaɪz] also legitimise verb [transitive] 1. to make something legal or official that had not been before: • He hopes to legitimize private ownership of toll roads in California. 2. to make something acceptable or popular: •… …   Financial and business terms

  • legitimize — le·git·i·mize /lə ji tə ˌmīz/ vt mized, miz·ing: legalize legitimate Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. legitimize …   Law dictionary

  • Legitimize — Le*git i*mize (l[ e]*j[i^]t [i^]*m[imac]z), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Legitimized} ( m[imac]zd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Legitimizing}.] To legitimate. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • legitimize — (v.) 1795, from L. legitimus (see LEGITIMATE (Cf. legitimate)) + IZE (Cf. ize). Earlier was legitimatize (1791). Related: Legitimized; legitimizing …   Etymology dictionary

  • legitimize — (Amer.) v. make something lawful, authorize, legalize (also legitimise) …   English contemporary dictionary

  • legitimize — (also legitimatise) ► VERB ▪ make legitimate. DERIVATIVES legitimization noun …   English terms dictionary

  • legitimize — [lə jit′əmīz΄] vt. legitimized, legitimizing 1. to make or declare legitimate; specif., a) to make lawful; give legal force or status to b) to give official or formal sanction to; authorize c) to give the status of a legitimate child to (one born …   English World dictionary

  • legitimize — le|git|i|mize also legitimise BrE [lıˈdʒıtımaız] v [T] [Date: 1800 1900; : Latin; Origin: legitimus; LEGITIMATE] 1.) to make something that is unfair or morally wrong seem acceptable and right ▪ There is a danger that these films legitimize… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • legitimize — UK [lɪˈdʒɪtəmaɪz] / US [ləˈdʒɪtəˌmaɪz] verb [transitive] Word forms legitimize : present tense I/you/we/they legitimize he/she/it legitimizes present participle legitimizing past tense legitimized past participle legitimized 1) to make something… …   English dictionary

  • legitimize — [[t]lɪʤɪ̱tɪmaɪz[/t]] legitimizes, legitimizing, legitimized VERB (The spellings legitimise in British English, and legitimatize in American English are also used.) To legitimize something, especially something bad, means to officially allow it,… …   English dictionary

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