amend
/əˈmɛnd
/verb [with object]
1Make minor changes to (a text, piece of legislation, etc.) in order to make it fairer or more accurate, or to reflect changing circumstances: the rule was amended to apply only to non-members...
- It said it has persuaded several overseas companies to amend their websites to reflect UK law.
- Since publication, Valder has slightly amended the text of his manifesto, replacing the second last paragraph.
- This is the slightly amended text of an address he gave to a Quadrant dinner in Sydney in August.
Synonyms
revise, alter, change, modify, qualify, adapt, adjust;
edit, copy-edit, rewrite, rescript, redraft, recast, rephrase, reword, rework, reform, update, revamp;
correct, remedy, fix, set right, put right, repair, emend, improve, ameliorate, better, enhance, clarify
2Improve the texture or fertility of (soil): amend your soil with peat moss or compost...
- If you can't afford topsoil, you can amend the soil with compost.
- Before replanting, amend soil with lots of fresh compost or organic matter.
- Plant each clump in soil that has been amended with compost and a balanced fertilizer.
2.1 archaic Put right: a few things had gone wrong, but these had been amended...
- I mean, Howard Dean has said a lot of things in this campaign that he's subsequently modified, amended or taken back.
- He said it would be ‘wholly irresponsible’ to scrap the system and said it could be modified and amended.
Derivatives
amendable
/ adjective ...- Under this standard, any amendable Constitution makes possible any change whatsoever, since theoretically the Constitution could be amended to implement that change.
- Senator McConnell says it is amendable and debatable.
- The pilots now work under a collective-bargaining agreement amendable at the end of next year.
amender
- He was among the thirty-four authors and amenders of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto, first drafted by Roy Wood Sellars.
- Article authors and amenders get no pay and no public credit.
- The amends made should support the amender's values or the family or school values if the amender is young.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French amender, based on Latin emendare (see emend).
mend from Middle English:
Even though it is found slightly earlier, mend is thought to be a shortening of amend, which along with emend are recorded within a few years of each other. They all go back to Latin emendare ‘to free from faults, correct’.