Definify.com
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.
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.
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.
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.Definition 2024
amend
amend
See also: amend.
English
Verb
amend (third-person singular simple present amends, present participle amending, simple past and past participle amended)
- (transitive) To make better.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
- I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.
- Shakespeare
- Mar not the thing that cannot be amended.
- Sir Walter Scott
- We shall cheer her sorrows, and amend her blood, by wedding her to a Norman.
-
- (intransitive) To become better.
- (obsolete, transitive) To heal (someone sick); to cure (a disease etc.).
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.x:
- But Paridell complaynd, that his late fight / With Britomart, so sore did him offend, / That ryde he could not, till his hurts he did amend.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.2.6.ii:
- he gave her a vomit, and conveyed a serpent, such as she conceived, into the basin; upon the sight of it she was amended.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.x:
- (transitive) To make a formal alteration in legislation by adding, deleting, or rephrasing.
Synonyms
- ameliorate
- correct
- improve
- See also Wikisaurus:improve
- See also Wikisaurus:repair
Related terms
Translations
to make better
|
|
to become better
|
|
to make a formal alteration
References
- amend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- amend in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911