Es·tab·lish v. t. [imp. & p. p. Established p. pr. & vb. n. Establishing.]
 1. To make stable or firm; to fix immovably or firmly; to set (a thing) in a place and make it stable there; to settle; to confirm.
    So were the churches established in the faith.   --Acts xvi. 5.
    The best established tempers can scarcely forbear being borne down.   --Burke.
    Confidence which must precede union could be established only by consummate prudence and self-control.   --Bancroft.
 2. To appoint or constitute for permanence, as officers, laws, regulations, etc.; to enact; to ordain.
 By the consent of all, we were established
 The people's magistrates.   --Shak.
    Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed.   --Dan. vi. 8.
 3. To originate and secure the permanent existence of; to found; to institute; to create and regulate; -- said of a colony, a state, or other institutions.
    He hath established it [the earth], he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.   --Is. xlv. 18.
    Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!   --Hab. ii. 12.
 4. To secure public recognition in favor of; to prove and cause to be accepted as true; as, to establish a fact, usage, principle, opinion, doctrine, etc.
    At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.   --Deut. xix. 15.
 5. To set up in business; to place advantageously in a fixed condition; -- used reflexively; as, he established himself in a place; the enemy established themselves in the citadel.

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