institutionalize
/ɪnstɪˈtjuːʃ(ə)n(ə)lʌɪz
/(also institutionalise)
verb [with object]
1Establish (something, typically a practice or activity) as a convention or norm in an organization or culture: he institutionalized the practice of collaborative research on a grand scale (as adjective institutionalized) institutionalized religion...
- Young organizations have not yet institutionalized their practices and may still be experimenting with different options.
- The Singaporean culture seems rather hectic and competitive, with a heavily institutionalised public education system where the workload gets heavy at a very early level.
- These campaign finance laws forced special interests to organize into political action committees and greatly institutionalized the practice of buying influence with campaign contributions.
2Place or keep (someone) in a residential institution: he was institutionalized in a school for the destitute...
- The boy is a product of a troubled homelife and he was institutionalized at 12 after threatening to commit suicide to get away from his abusive father; his mother is not in the picture.
- She's then institutionalized for the remainder of the film.
- Mom spent the years 1967 to 1988 providing some level of care to Dad while he was institutionalized.
2.1 (as adjective institutionalized) (Of a person) apathetic and dependent after a long period in an institution: I became less institutionalized, more able to function as an individual...
- No matter how institutionalized you are, there is a part of you that panics whenever you get a new cellmate.
- I'm so relieved now that I didn't because I was so institutionalised, I couldn't see any other way at that moment.