(~s, colonizing, ~d)
Note: in BRIT, also use 'colonise'
1.
If people ~ a foreign country, they go to live there and take control of it.
The first British attempt to ~ Ireland was in the twelfth century...
For more than 400 years, we were a ~d people.
VERB: V n, V-ed
2.
When large numbers of animals ~ a place, they go to live there and make it their home.
Toads are colonising the whole place.
VERB: V n
3.
When an area is ~d by a type of plant, the plant grows there in large amounts.
The area was then ~d by scrub.
VERB: usu passive, be V-ed by n