English

Alternative forms

• illegalise

Verb

illegalize ‎(third-person singular simple present illegalizes, present participle illegalizing, simple past and past participle illegalized)

1. To make illegal; to prohibit by law, to criminalize. [from 19th c.]
   • 2000, Lois Bibbings, Donald Nicolson, Feminist Perspectives on Criminal Law, p. 111:

     Only as recently as 1991 was the rape by a husband of his wife illegalised.

   • 2002, David Evans, A History of Nature Conservation in Britain, p. 47:

     A 1908 Act illegalised the teagle, a particularly nasty snare of baited hooks joined by strings which was put out to attract birds during hard weather.

   • 2013, A Scott Berg, Wilson, Berkley 2014, p. 41:

     Although slavery had been illegalized by 1870, fundamental prejudice could not be legislated away.