/əˈmɛnd/
OriginFrom Middle English amenden, from Old French amender, from Latin ēmendō (“free from faults”), from ex (“from, out of”) + mendum (“fault”). Compare aphetic mend. Doublet of emend.
- transitiveTo make better; improve.
“Mud not the fountain that gave drink to thee;
Mar not the thing that cannot be amended.”
“We shall cheer her sorrows, and amend her blood, by wedding her to a Norman.”
“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 tim”
- intransitiveTo become better.
“The teacher sat at one end of the bench, with a meek little fellow by his side. When the others were disorderly, this young martyr received a rap; intended, probably, as a sample of what the rest migh”
- obsolete, transitiveTo heal (someone sick); to cure (a disease etc.).
“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.”
“he gave her a vomit, and conveyed a serpent, such as she conceived, into the basin; upon the sight of it she was amended.”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo be healed, to be cured, to recover (from an illness).
“Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls
That stay his cure: their malady convinces
The great assay of art; but at his touch—
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand—
They presently amend.”
- transitiveTo make a formal alteration (in legislation, a report, etc.) by adding, deleting, or rephrasing.
“The following motions cannot be amended:”
“1990, Doug Hoyle, Hansard, Trade Union Act, 1984, Amendment no. 2, 4 July, 1990,
It is necessary to amend the Act to preserve the spirit in which it was first passed into law […]”
- plural-normallyAn act of righting a wrong; compensation.
“Thus by the code of the Visigoths, it was forbidden to all strangers to take their subjects under a penalty of one hundred lashes and an amend in gold.”
“It was her offer of surrender as an amend that, persuading him of her shining honesty, had aroused in him something akin to worship and had made an end of that cynical spirit in which for worldly ends”
“Did I owe him an amend? Probably not, but I did owe myself an amend. I did this by ceasing to resent.”
- abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal, plural-normallyClipping of amendment (“alteration or change for the better”).
“I've sent over a new version of the doc with some amends.”
Formsamends(present, singular, third-person) · amending(participle, present) · amended(participle, past) · amended(past) · amend(infinitive) · amend(first-person, present, singular) · amended(first-person, past, singular) · amend(present, second-person, singular) · amendest(archaic, present, second-person, singular) · amended(past, second-person, singular) · amendedst(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · amendeth(archaic, present, singular, third-person) · amended(past, singular, third-person) · amend(plural, present) · amended(past, plural) · amend(present, subjunctive) · amended(past, subjunctive) · amend(imperative, present) · -(imperative, past) · amends(plural)