AMEND • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Amend

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/əmˈɛnd/ Listen

verb

Amend v. t. (past & past part. amended; pres. part. amending) 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." "An instant emergency, granting no possibility for revision, or opening for amended thought." "We shall cheer her sorrows, and amend her blood, by wedding her to a Norman."

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.

Synonyms: 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.

Amend v. i. To grow better by rectifying something wrong in manners or morals; to improve. "My fortune... amends."

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Etymology of 'Amend'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Amend" Quotes from Famous Books

... teaches us the wondrous height, and depth, and breadth of divine love. It warns us not to be kind and loving only to the good and gentle, but to love our enemies, to do good to those who persecute us and speak evil of us, to try to give all a chance to amend, even as God, in His long-suffering mercy, makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good. We shall get to know more of the love of Christ if we learn to be more impartial in our love for our fellow men. I know ...

— The Life of Duty, v. 2 - A year's plain sermons on the Gospels or Epistles • H. J. Wilmot-Buxton

... said James. 'I wonder into whose hands they will fall. Your heart may be free, Clara; you have followed the clear path of duty; but it is a painful thought for me, that to strive to amend these festering evils, caused very likely by my grandfather's speculations, might have been my appointed task. I should not have had far to seek for occupation. When I was talking to the Curate yesterday, my heart smote me to think what I might have ...

— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. II) • Charlotte M. Yonge

... although it is very sweet to work for Charlotte Halliday, it would not be by any means agreeable to slave for my friend Paget. Shall I offer him a pound a week, and ask him to retire into the depths of Wales or Cornwall, amend his ways, and live the life of a repentant hermit? I think I could bring myself to sacrifice the weekly sovereign, if there were any hope that Horatio Paget could cease to be—Horatio Paget, on this side the grave. No, I have the ...

— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon

... ryche marchant of London here was, that had one sonne that was somewhat vnthryfty. Therfore hys fader vppon hys deth bed called hym to hym, and sayde he knew well that he had ben vnthryfty; how be it, yf he knew he wold amend hys condycyons he wolde make hym hys executour and leue hym hys goods, so that he wolde promyse hym to pray for hys soule and so fynde one dayly to syng for hym: which thyng to performe hys sonne there ...

— Shakespeare Jest-Books; - Reprints of the Early and Very Rare Jest-Books Supposed - to Have Been Used by Shakespeare • Unknown

... report, with a conviction of the evils produced by the system in many districts of the country, that they resolved to propose a remedy to parliament. On the 17th of April, therefore, Lord Althorp moved for leave to bring in a bill to alter and amend the laws relating to the poor. The necessity of interference was maintained on the ground that the present administration of those laws tended directly and indirectly to the destruction of all property, whilst their continued ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

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