legalize

present singular third person legalizes · participle present legalizing · participle past legalized · past legalized · alternative UK legalise

1. To make legal or permit under law. Either by decriminalising something that has been illegal or by specifically permitting it.

   There is a debate whether or not to legalize some of the softer drugs.

   4 more examples

   This is true despite the fact that in 1986, the federal government legalized the cashability of RRSP annuities.

   1987, Dian Cohen, Money, page 155

   Legislative reform campaigns aimed at restricting foreign immigration, mandating state institutionalization of the biologically unfit, and legalizing eugenical involuntary sterilization.

   2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 71

   But now a legislative battle looms over the gun lobby’s brazen counterinitiative to legalize concealed weapons on campus.

   2007 August 22, “Virginia’s Gun Market”, in The New York Times

   State lawmakers approved a bill on Tuesday that legalizes the drug for adults 21 and older and moves toward the creation of a potential $4.2 billion industry that could become one of the nation’s largest markets.

   2021 September 23, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Troy Closson, “New York Has Legalized Marijuana. Here’s What to Know.”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: legitimate