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Webster 1913 Edition

Amend

A-mend′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Amended
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Amending
.]
[F.
amender
, L.
emendare
;
e
(
ex
) +
mendum
,
menda
, fault, akin to Skr.
minda
personal defect. Cf.
Emend
,
Mend
.]
To change or modify in any way for the better
;
as,
(a)
by simply removing what is erroneous, corrupt, superfluous, faulty, and the like;
(b)
by supplying deficiencies;
(c)
by substituting something else in the place of what is removed; to rectify.
Mar not the thing that can not be
amended
.
Shakespeare
An instant emergency, granting no possibility for revision, or opening for
amended
thought.
De Quincey.
We shall cheer her sorrows, and
amend
her blood, by wedding her to a Norman.
Sir W. Scott.
To amend a bill
,
to make some change in the details or provisions of a bill or measure while on its passage, professedly for its improvement.
Syn. – To
Amend
,
Emend
,
Correct
,
Reform
,
Rectify
.
These words agree in the idea of bringing things into a more perfect state. We correct (literally, make straight) when we conform things to some standard or rule; as, to correct proof sheets. We amend by removing blemishes, faults, or errors, and thus rendering a thing more a nearly perfect; as, to amend our ways, to amend a text, the draft of a bill, etc. Emend is only another form of amend, and is applied chiefly to editions of books, etc. To reform is literally to form over again, or put into a new and better form; as, to reform one’s life. To rectify is to make right; as, to rectify a mistake, to rectify abuses, inadvertencies, etc.

A-mend′

(ȧ-mĕnd′)
,
Verb.
I.
To grow better by rectifying something wrong in manners or morals; to improve.
“My fortune . . . amends.”
Sir P. Sidney.

Webster 1828 Edition

Amend

AMEND'

,
Verb.
T.
[L. emendo, of e neg, and menda, mendum, a fault. See mend.]
1.
To correct; to rectify by expunging a mistake; as, to amend a law.
2.
To reform, by quitting bad habits; to make better in a moral sense; as, to amend our ways or our conduct.
3.
To correct; to supply a defect; to improve or make better, by some addition of what is wanted, as well as by expunging what is wrong, as to amend a bill before a legislature. Hence it is applied to the correction of authors, by restoring passages which had been omitted, or restoring the true reading.

AMEND'

,
Verb.
I.
To grow or become better, by reformation, or rectifying something wrong in manners or morals. It differs from improve, in this, that to amend implies something previously wrong; to improve, does not.

AMEND'

, A pecuniary punishment, or fine. The amende honorable, in France, is an infamous punishment inflicted on traitors, parricides and sacrilegious persons. The offender,being led into court with a rope about his neck, begs pardon of his God, the court, &c. These words denote also a recantation in open court, or in presence of the injured person.

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