canonize

verb

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.”

   “Wée maye woorſhippe neyther the Virgine Marie, neyther the Apoſtles, neyther any Saincte, neyther make holy dayes, or Temples for them, muche leſſe Canonize them, which comprehendeth all theſe.”

   “In heaven, are the ſowls of men departed in the popiſh fayth, and delivered from purgatorie: ſome of which, the Pope canonizeth for Saincts, whom the people on earth are religiouſly to honour and pray unto, as their mediators with God.”

   “He muſt be of an eaſie belief, that can be certainly perſwaded that every one whom the Pope Canonizeth, and putteth into the Liſt of Saints, is ſo indeed.”

   “Where to pray to thy suppositious saints? Where has it taught thee to enjoin men to pray to imaginary saints, whom thou canonizest from time to time?”

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, [...]”

   “The Poet puts all his Wit into the Mouths of Rooks and Bullies; and if an honeſt Man appear, he is ſure to be hooted at, and generally goes off both Fool and Cuckold. Is not this to condemn Virtue? to execute it in Effigie? and to canonize Vice by Deputy?”

   “And because that in such turbulent affairs as this, words multiply more and more, and, together with the stir, reports gather strength and increase; and for that every one "canonizeth his own presumption," they began to murmer^([sic – meaning murmur]) against Don Louis, and the people of his house.”

   “I am no mediæval maid, / Of saints obscure to brag on, / But one there is I canonize— / St. George who killed the dragon.”

   “I'll never forgive the Kaiser [Wilhelm II, German Emperor] so long as I live, though naturally I'm for him in this war—I have to be—everybody else is against him. [...] To get any space at all now, I have to hustle around canonizing the Kaiser; [...]”

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.”

   “Not all psalms that claim Davidic authorship were included in the canon, but those that were canonized frequently had this association.”

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.”

   “[I]n canonizing horror films and ranking serial killers among the entertainment elite, have we made the perilous environment that lies just beyond the coursing marquee lights and pale glow of the video monitor an even more dangerous space?”

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: [...]”

   “[T]hat a rhetorician, like Libanius, a Pagan even to madneſs, ſhould think the Chriſtians capable of attempting the life of Julian, is not ſurpriſing. [...] But that an eccleſiaſtical hiſtorian, like Sozomen, ſhould be tempted to canoniſe ſo deteſtable an action, might perhaps not be credited on my aſſertion.”

   “The European library only achieves its characteristic design in 1843, with the separation of reading areas from bookstacks first attempted in library architecture at the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève at the Université de Paris. [...] [Anthony] Panizzi's British Museum Reading Room (stacks surrounding a central reading room) canonised the procedure, which dominates even the more recent tower stacks, in which librarianship triumphs over ideological and economic divides, [...]”