immigrate, v.
(ˈɪmɪgreɪt)
[f. L. immigrāt-, ppl. stem of immigrāre to remove or go into, f. im- (im-1) + migrāre to migrate.]
1. intr. To come to settle in a country (which is not one's own); to pass into a new habitat or place of residence (lit. and fig.).
| 1623 Cockeram, Immigrate, to goe dwell in some place. 1651 Charleton Ephes. & Cimm. Matrons ii. (1668) 67 In exchanging words, they exchange spirits: and immigrate into the wishes they utter. 1792 [see immigrant n.]. 1845 M{supc}Culloch Taxation i. iii. (1852) 94 If foreign labourers..be permitted freely to immigrate into the country. |
2. trans. To bring in or introduce as settlers. (Cf. emigrate 2.)
| 1896 Daily News 13 Feb. 5/7 By carving out a new autonomous district, to which the Armenians would be immigrated. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 14 May 2/3 The expense of immigrating coolie labour from the East Indies. |
Hence ˈimmigrated, ˈimmigrating ppl. adjs.
| 1869 Farrar Fam. Speech iii. (1873) 100 Professor Munk..believes that the Phœnicians were an immigrating race. 1882 Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S. 541 In Venezuelan Guyana, where immigrated Corsicans are the principal miners. 1885 E. A. Schäfer in Proc. Roy. Soc. XXXVIII. 89 The carrying of fatty particles into the lacteals..by the immigrating leucocytes. |
______________________________
Add: [1.] b. Physiol. Of a cell or small formation of tissue: to move from its usual position into an area of the body where it is required.
| 1885 [implied in immigrating ppl. adj. below]. 1887 Amer. Naturalist XXI. 422 The endoderm cells..will no longer immigrate one at a time, but will invaginate in a body, and thus in a more direct way establish a gastric cavity. 1977 Zool. Anzeiger CXCVIII. 355 An intercellular substance in the infection area contains fibrous structures, in which histiocytes immigrate. |
c. Nat. Hist. Of a species of animal or (occas.) plant: to migrate into a given area, esp. when this leads to continuous occupation of the area by the species.
| 1889 Cent. Dict. s.v. Immigrant, One who or that which immigrates, as a person, an animal, or a plant. 1977 Appl. Entomol. & Zool. XII. 122 Assuming 10 days for the mean longevity of adults which have immigrated to the production rice field over a period of 30 days, [etc.]. 1985 Animal Behaviour XXXIII. 853 There were no indications that a male, who had been successful as a bluff immigrant once, would immigrate in the bluff way later in his life as well. 1986 Geologica Romana XXV. 304/2 Many trees and shrubs immigrate, indicating a temporary increase in precipitation and perhaps in temperature. |