symbolise

Alternative forms

• symbolize (US)

Etymology

From Middle French symboliser

Verb

symbolise (third-person singular simple present symbolises, present participle symbolising, simple past and past participle symbolised)

1. To be symbolic of; to represent.

   The crossed hammer and sickle symbolise the union of workers and peasantry in their fight for their rights.

   • 1852 CE: William and Robert Chambers, Chambers' Edinburgh Journal

     [H]is heart swelled within him, as he sat at the head of his own table, on the occasion of the house-warming, dispensing with no niggard hand the gratuitous viands and unlimited beer, which were at once to symbolise and inaugurate the hospitality of his mansion.

Verb

symbolise

1. first-person singular present indicative of symboliser
2. third-person singular present indicative of symboliser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of symboliser
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of symboliser
5. second-person singular imperative of symboliser