symbolize

Etymology

From Middle French symboliser.

verb

1. (transitive) To be symbolic of; to represent.
   The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood. 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion
2. (intransitive) To use symbols; to represent ideas symbolically.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To resemble each other in qualities or properties; to correspond; to harmonize.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To hold the same faith; to agree.
   The believers in pretended miracles have always previously symbolized with the performers of them. 1824, George Stanley Faber, The Difficulties of Infidelity