1. (v.) 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.

2. (v.) To appoint or constitute for permanence, as officers, laws, regulations, etc.; to enact; to ordain.

3. (v.) 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.

4. (v.) 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.

5. (v.) 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.