English

Verb

make whole ‎(third-person singular simple present makes whole, present participle making whole, simple past and past participle made whole)

1. (transitive, set phrase) To restore (someone) to a sound, healthy, or otherwise favorable condition.
   • 1882, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion: A Romance, ch. 6:

     Pale the children both did look,

     But the guest a beaker took;

     "Golden wine will make you whole!"

   • 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter VII:

     There isn't a man in the world who doesn't pity that poor black sufferer, and there isn't a man that wouldn't make him whole if he could.

   • 1916, Jack London, "The End of the Story" in The Turtles of Tasman:

     "Go on, go on," she breathed. "Make him whole. Make him what he was."

     More than once, whenever Strang's recuperation permitted, Linday put him under the anæsthetic and did terrible things, cutting and sewing.

2. (transitive, set phrase) To repair or restore (something).
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act 3, sc. 1:

     Pandarus: Fair prince, here is good broken music.

     Paris: You have broke it, cousin: and, by my life, you shall make it whole again.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, ch. 52:

     Nell, busily plying her needle, repaired the tattered window-hangings, drew together the rents that time had worn in the threadbare scraps of carpet, and made them whole and decent.

   • 1915, Rex Ellingwood Beach, Heart of the Sunset, ch. 28:

     I see Mexico made whole by my hands; a land of peace and plenty.

3. (transitive, finance, law) To provide (someone), especially under the terms of a legal judgment or an agreement, with financial compensation for lost money or other lost assets.
   • 1991 Feb. 10, Larry Light et al., "Were These Deals Too Sweet To Last?," BusinessWeek (retrieved 28 Jan 2014)

     Perelman receives a government subsidy called "yield maintenance"—totaling about $406 million to date—to make him whole for carrying money-losing assets in the thrift.

   • 1994 Sept. 25, Jan Hoffman with Matthew Purdy, "Harriman Suit: Misconduct, Or Just Bad Luck Investing?," New York Times (retrieved 28 Jan 2014):

     The only investor to be made whole, the lawsuit says, was First American Bank of New York, whose $5.5 million loan to the resort was repaid.

   • 2007 June 15, Elizabeth MacDonald , "Gilded Greetings," forbes.com (retrieved 28 Jan 2014):

     Companies “are increasingly covering more complicated forms of compensation that executives forfeited from prior jobs,” says Hodgson. For instance, Home Depot promised Robert Nardelli half his salary and bonus, subject to certain undisclosed offsets, to make him whole for retirement benefits he earned at GE.

Synonyms

• (restore (someone) to a sound, healthy, or favorable condition): cure, heal, remedy, restore
• (repair (something)): fix, restore
• (provide (someone) with compensation for a financial loss): compensate, recompense, reimburse, repay