constitute

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• transitive verb To be the elements or parts of; compose.
• transitive verb To amount to; equal.
• transitive verb To set up or establish according to law or provision.
• transitive verb To found (an institution, for example).
• transitive verb To enact (a law or regulation).
• transitive verb To appoint to an office, dignity, function, or task; designate.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To set; fix; establish.
• To enter into the formation of, as a necessary part; make what it is; form; make.
• To appoint, depute, or elect to an office or employment; make and empower: as, a sheriff is constituted a conservator of the peace; A has constituted B his attorney or agent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To cause to stand; to establish; to enact.
• transitive verb To make up; to compose; to form.
• transitive verb To appoint, depute, or elect to an office; to make and empower.
• transitive verb the officers of government, collectively, as of a nation, city, town, etc.
• noun obsolete An established law.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb To cause to stand; to establish; to enact.
• verb To make up; to compose; to form.
• verb To appoint, depute, or elect to an office; to make and empower.
• noun obsolete An established law.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb set up or lay the groundwork for
• verb to compose or represent:
• verb create and charge with a task or function
• verb form or compose