Columbusing

Verb

Columbus (third-person singular simple present Columbuses, present participle Columbusing, simple past and past participle Columbused)

1. (dated, possibly, slang) To explore; to go around exploring, to go around as an explorer.
   • "But, boy the powers of mud, I belayve you fellers mane to make an indepindint cruise in the Orient, and go Columbusing all over the ocean boy the way ye's talk!"1893, American Boys Afloat: Or, Cruising in the Orient, page 150
2. (US, derogatory, slang) To appropriate; to lay claim to something, especially a discovery, which is perceived as belonging to someone else.
   • When his black friend tells him that many people knew about the bar before he did, his white friend retorts by saying that he “Columbused it”; i.e., discovered it for white people before a gaggle of hip white people flooded in.2014, Justin Simien, Dear White People, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 97

See all 26 meanings of Columbus