heal
/hiːl
/verb [with object]
1Cause (a wound, injury, or person) to become sound or healthy again: his concern is to heal sick people...
- But when I was bitten, while picking some herbs to heal a sick friend, they made me one of their Elders.
- Although he does not prescribe medicines, he plays a significant and positive role in healing sick people.
- Pulses of ultrasound are also sometimes used as a treatment for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and to heal fractures and wounds.
Synonyms
make better, make well, cure, treat successfully, restore to health, get someone back on their feet, put someone on the road to recovery;
make good, mend, remedy, restore
curative, therapeutic, medicinal, remedial, curing, corrective, reparative;
restorative, tonic, health-giving, healthful, beneficial, salubrious
rare sanative, analeptic, iatric
1.1 [no object] Become sound or healthy again: the bullet wounds had healed...
- He could return if he takes the veterans' minimum deal, his troublesome knee heals and there is a need after the club explores other options.
- And it has nothing to do with how the little tear in his knee heals.
- You can make yourself more balanced and well-rounded by dabbling in these other areas while your knee heals.
Synonyms
get better, get well, be cured, become healthy, recover, mend, be on the mend, improve, show improvement, be restored
1.2Alleviate (a person’s distress or anguish): time can heal the pain of grief...
- Of course, his wife will also be pregnant because that obviously will heal the psychological torment and guilt John feels over the loss of his son.
- Thirdly, we should do what will go a long way to heal the agony of the Hindus.
- From now until I die, I will be nothing more to my pride than a means to heal pain and agony.
1.3Correct or put right (an undesirable situation): the rift between them was never really healed...
- I think a number of us are really encouraged to go back and really work with the people, and help to heal the situation.
- But Foot was seen as a conciliator, who would heal divisions in the party.
- Would a Truth and Reconciliation Commission help to heal the racial divide in Bermuda?
Synonyms
put right, set right, put to rights, repair, remedy, resolve, correct, settle, make good, patch up, soothe, conciliate, reconcile, harmonize
Derivatives
healable
- Nearly an hour later, Mother had bound up his cut and pronounced it healable.
- Aren't we looking at divisions that are simply not healable because a bunch of people go to the polls?
- This case of epilepsy is healable in almost all cases by my healing method.
Origin
Old English hǣlan (in the sense 'restore to sound health'), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch heelen and German heilen, also to whole.