prelatize

English

Etymology

From prelate +‎ -ize.

Verb

prelatize (third-person singular simple present prelatizes, present participle prelatizing, simple past and past participle prelatized)

1. (intransitive) To uphold or encourage prelacy; to exercise prelatical functions.
   • 1641, John Milton, Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence against Smectymnuus; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 143:

     he indeed ſucceeded into an Epiſcopacy that began then to prelatize;

2. (transitive) To bring under the influence of prelacy.
   • 1859-1890, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England During the Stuart Dynasty

     Laud was busy with his more important plan of prelatizing the Church of Scotland

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “prelatize”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)