Meanings
categise1
present singular third person categises · participle present categising · participle past categised · past categised · alternative categize
- rareThrash (verbally or physically).
Conceale your qualitie till we be private; if your parts be worthie of me, I will countenance you, if not, categize you.
1580–1615, an unknown source, quoted in: Henk Gras, All Semblative a Woman’s Part? (1991), page 2411 more example
Thus he categised the churches of his day as “The mills of Satan”, where men “in his synagogues worship Satan under the unalterable name”.
1962, The Philosopher, XIII, page 49
categise2
- archaicpronunciation spellingrareuncountablePronunciation spelling of catechism.
“Oh, sir, I’ll answer ten thousand, gin ye like till ask them, as carefully and pointedly as if I wir saying my categise.”
1821, D.P. Campbell, Harley Radington, I, ch. xxii, p. 225
Origin
categise · verb
- Ancient Greekκαταιγίζω“I rush down like a storm”
- Englishcategise
First attested around the turn of the sixteenth century. The origin is uncertain; derivation is perhaps from the Ancient Greek καταιγίζω (kataigízō, “I rush down like a storm”), from καταιγίς (kataigís, “a storm descending from above”, figuratively “battle”).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
categise. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/categise
“categise.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/categise. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “categise,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/categise.
Source: categise on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.