establish

establish is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 6 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.The best established tempers can scarcely forbear being borne down. Burke. Confidence which must precede union could be established only by consummate prudence and self-control. Bancroft.
  2. 2.To appoint or constitute for permanence, as officers, laws, regulations, etc.; to enact; to ordain. By the consent of all, we were established The people's magistrates. Shak. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed. Dan. vi.
  3. 3.3. To originate and secure the permanent existence of; to found; to institute; to create and regulate; -- said of a colony, a state, or other institutions. He hath established it [the earth], he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited. Is. xlv.
  4. 4.Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity! Hab. ii.
  5. 5.4. To secure public recognition in favor of; to prove and cause to be accepted as true; as, to establish a fact, usage, principle, opinion, doctrine, etc. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. Deut. xix.
  6. 6.5. To set up in business; to place advantageously in a fixed condition; -- used reflexively; as, he established himself in a place; the enemy established themselves in the citadel.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is establish.

Sources