Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Amend?

\A*mend"\, v. 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. --Shak. 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}. Usage: 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"\ ([.a]*m[e^]nd"), v. i. To grow better by rectifying something wrong in manners or morals; to improve. ``My fortune . . . amends.'' --Sir P. Sidney.