From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcolonizecol‧o‧nize (also colonise British English) /ˈkɒlənaɪz $ ˈkɑː-/ verb [transitive] 1 PGto establish political control over an area or over another country, and send your citizens there to settle → colony2 if animals or plants colonize an area, large numbers of them start to live there a dead tree that has been colonized by ants —colonizer noun [countable] —colonization /ˌkɒlənaɪˈzeɪʃən $ ˌkɑːlənə-/ noun [uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
colonize• Yet, in fact, only a small part of the world has yet been car colonized.• Three young men in cutoffs had colonized a triangular space and were flipping a Frisbee.• But what is beyond question is that, in the post-contact era, it was Hawaii that colonized other countries with surfing.• Crabs are among the first animals to colonize the new vent sites. 