canonizing

Verb

canonize (third-person singular simple present canonizes, present participle canonizing, simple past and past participle canonized)

1. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To declare (a deceased person) as a saint, and enter them into the canon of saints.
   • Thomas Becket was canonized in 1173.

   Synonyms:

   saint

   Antonyms:

   uncanonize

2. (British, English, Oxford, US, figuratively, transitive) To regard as a saint; to glorify, to exalt to the highest honour.
   • She is a theame of honour and renowne, / A ſpurre to valiant and magnanimous deeds, / Whoſe preſent courage may beate downe our foes, / And fame in time to come canonize us, [...]c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609...
3. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To formally declare (a piece of religious writing) to be part of the biblical canon.
   • Yet becauſe there are Two Pretences made; One, that elſewhere he Canonizeth all the reſt of the Conteſted Books; and another, that in this place he detracteth nothing in that behalf from the Books of the Maccabes, we will clear the way before us, and anſwer them both.1657, [John] Cosin, “The Testimonies of the Ecclesiastical Writers in the Seventh Century”, in A Scholastical History of the Canon of the Holy Scripture: Or The Certain and Indubitate Books thereof...

   Antonyms:

   uncanonize

4. (British, English, Oxford, US, broadly, transitive) To regard (an artistic or written work or its creator) as one of a group that are representative of a particular field.
   • To these errors the Middle Ages contributed not a little by canonizing all the ancient authorities so that when modern historical criticism came into vogue the reaction against authority went too far and skepticism overleaped the mark.1930, Tenney Frank, “Republican Historiography and Livy”, in Life and Literature in the Roman Republic, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.; London: University of California Press, published 1971, →ISBN...
5. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) Especially of a church: to give official approval to; to authorize, to sanction.
   • He ſhews, the Legate's Drift was to Canonize all the Abuſes of the Court of Rome: ſo they never ſuffer'd them to be treated of freely, but managed them like the Compounding of a Law-Suit: [...]1715, Gilbert [Burnet], “Book IV. Of what Happen’d during the Reign of King Edward the VIth, from the Year 1547, to the Year 1553.”, in The History of the Reformation of the Church of England. The...

   Antonyms:

   uncanonize