Definition of "legitimatize" [le•git•i•ma•tize]

• To legitimate. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "'legitimatize' reason to make its products better, as if profit itself isn't reason enough?"
• "Then, when others come out with their own Wave servers, there will be some competition for Google, but not much … not until a big player jumps on the bandwagon, like Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, AOL, etc … This would simultaneously compete with Google AND legitimatize the protocol."
• "These people are just out to de-legitimatize Obama in any way they can ... even if it calls for outright lying which is what they are doing."