The giant squid is one of many denizens of the deep.

The denizens of that pub are of the roughest sort.

As a fan of West Ham United I’m always looking to legitimise my dislike of Chelsea FC. And on first viewing, this week’s jarring retro-Métro-racism seems like a good reason to condemn the denizens of Stamford Bridge.

1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke, London, The xiiii yere,
Then by commaundement wer all Fre[n]chemen and Scottes imprisoned and the goodes seazed, and all suche as were denizens were commaunded to shewe their letters patentes […]

A denizen is a kind of middle state, between an alien and a natural-born subject, and partakes of both.

1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica” in Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, p. xlv,
All free persons were authorized and permitted to transport themselves, their families, and goods […] to Jamaica, from any part of the British dominions; and their children born in Jamaica were declared free denizens of England, entitled to the same privileges as free born subjects of England.

Though born in Iceland, he became a denizen of Britain after leaving Oxford.

The bald eagle is a denizen of the northern part of the state.

He was denizened to Ireland after fleeing his home country.

1849, Joseph Dalton Hooker, “Extracts from the Private Letters of Dr. J. D. Hooker, written during a Botanical Mission to India” in William Jackson Hooker (editor), Hooker’s Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany, London: Reeve, Benham and Reeve, Volume 1, p. 85,
There were a few islets in the sand […] . These were at once denizened by the Calotropis, Argemone, Tamarix, Gnaphalium luteoalbum and two other species […] .

Denizen

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