Channelize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To direct or guide a flow, such as water or energy, into a specific channel or path
2. To cause a stream, current, or force to move along a fixed route or conduit
3. To control or manage the movement of a liquid, force, or resource by confining it within defined boundaries

Etymology: Channelize is a plain formation: the noun "channel" with the verb-forming suffix "-ize" added to it. The suffix has a longer road into English than the word it sits on. It descends from Ancient Greek "-izein", which Late Latin borrowed as "-izare", and French then carried into English as "-ise" and "-ize" spellings, a route that the Middle English period made familiar. The noun "channel" is the older and more interesting part. It comes from the same source as "canal", and it originally referred to the bed of a stream or the deeper water in a strait, a sense that still survives in names such as the English Channel. Over time it came to mean any confined passage for water, and then, figuratively, a route along which information or goods are directed. "Channelize" therefore takes a literal image of water running through a bed and applies it to anything being steered into a set path. The "-ize" ending is the kind of suffix English has used freely for centuries to turn nouns into verbs.

Synonyms: direct, guide, route, conduct, lead

Antonyms: misdirect, divert, obstruct, block, hinder