mend
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English menden (“to cure; to do good to, benefit; to do or make better, improve; to get better, recover; to keep in a good state; to put right, amend; to reform, repent”), the aphetic form of amenden (“to alter, change (especially for the better); to atone; to chastise, punish; to correct, remedy, amend; to cure; to excel, surpass; to forgive; to get or make better, improve; to make ready; to mend, repair, restore; to get well, recover; to relieve”), or from its etymon Anglo-Norman amender and Old French amender (“to cure; to fix, repair; to set right, correct”) (modern French amender), from Latin ēmendāre, the present active infinitive of ēmendō (“to atone; to chastise, punish; to correct, remedy, amend; to cure”), from ē- (variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’)) + mendum (“defect; error, fault”) (from Proto-Indo-European *mend- (“defect; fault”)) + -ō (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs).
Inflected forms:
form: mends
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: mending
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: mended
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: mended
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: mend
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: mend
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: mended
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: mend
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: mendest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: mended
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: mendedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: mends
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: mendeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: mended
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: mend
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: mended
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: mend
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: mended
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: mend
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: mending
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: mended
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: mends
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To physically repair (something that is broken, defaced, decayed, torn, or otherwise damaged).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: My trousers have a big rip in them and need mending.
When your car breaks down, you can take it to the garage to have it mended.
[H]e [Jesus] ſawe other two brethren, James the ſonne of Zebede, and Jhon his brother, in the ſhip with Zebede their father, mendynge their nettes, and called them. And they without tarynge lefte yͤ ſhyp and their father, and folowed hym.
[A] fellow mending the tiles just when the fire broke out, saw a pot with wildfire in the room.
Then, Betsey, my dear, run into the kitchen, and see if Rebecca has put the water on; and tell her to bring in the tea-things as soon as she can. I wish we could get the bell mended—but Betsey is a very handy little messenger.
The boy first remembered him as sitting in the door of the plantation blacksmith-shop, where he sharpened plow-points and mended tools and even did rough carpenter-work when he was not in the woods.
gloss: To add fuel to (a fire).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: [I]n, you Rogue, and vvipe the pigges, and mend the fire, that they fall not, or I'le both baſte and roaſt you, till your eyes drop out, like 'hem.
He mended the fire and turned the meat on the greenwood racks.
gloss: To correct or put right (an error, a fault, etc.); to rectify, to remedy.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Dro[mio of Syracuse]. […] [S]he ſvveats a man may goe ouer-ſhooes in the grime of it. / Anti[pholus of Syracuse]. That's a fault that vvater vvill mend.
[Y]ou muſt examine vvhere the fault is, and taking the Pin out mend the fault in the Joynt.
It is a mean want of fortitude in a good man, not to be able to do a virtuous action with as much confidence as an impudent fellow does an ill one. There is no way of mending such false modesty, but by laying it down for a rule, that there is nothing shameful but what is criminal.
I can sleep weel aneugh mysel out-bye beside the naig, as I hae done money a lang night on the hills, but how ye are to put yoursels up, I canna see! And, what's waur, I canna mend it; […]
This old Francesco Cenci, as you know, / […] left me so / In poverty, the which I sought to mend / By holding a poor office in the state.
[S]he peered into her handbag mirror to mend her rouge: […]
gloss: To put (something) in a better state; to ameliorate, to improve, to reform, to set right.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Her stutter was mended by a speech therapist.
My broken heart was mended.
So neyther is one vertue fit for all, nor all fit for one vertue: nor is that one ſo excellent, but by more it might be mended: […]
Tacitus obſerueth hovv rarely raiſing of the fortune mendeth the diſpoſition, […]
Some Vegetables [when burned] loſe their Smell, as Roſes; others, keep it, as Roſemary; and others, mend it, as Lignum Aloes, […]
[S]uppose ſuch a one [a tradesman] to have but a poor imploy in the vvorld, but by becoming Religious, he may mend his market, perhaps get a rich VVife, or more and far better cuſtomers to his ſhop. For my part, I ſee no reaſon but that this may be lavvfully done.
But [Geoffrey] Chaucer has refin'd on Boccace [i.e., Giovanni Boccaccio], and has mended the Stories vvhich he has borrovv'd, in his vvay of telling; […]
[T]hough in ſome Lands the Graſs is but ſhort, yet it yields great plenty of Milk and Cream, fats Cattle exceedingly, and mends Garden herbs and Fruits, making the Corn to have a large Ear, and a ſhort Stravv, ſo that ſometimes the Ear of Barly is very near as long as the Stalk: […]
The fifty new churches will very much mend the prospect; but church-work is slow, church-work is slow.
The ſacred book no longer ſuffers vvrong, / Bound in the fetters of an unknovvn tongue, / But ſpeaks vvith plainneſs art could never mend, / VVhat ſimpleſt minds can ſooneſt comprehend.
Allan, my Page, shall with us wend, / A bow full deftly he can bend, / And, if we meet an herd [of deer], may send / A shaft shall mend our cheer.
The Fieldings, till Henry [Fielding] came up to mend the reputation, were not thought very clever.
Richard the Third had held his court there, had heard disputations in the hall, had feasted there royally, and had mended the cheer of his hosts by a present of fat bucks from his forests.
How best to help the slender store, / How mend the dwellings, of the poor; / How gain in life, as life advances, / Valour and charity more and more.
[A]t that time there were none but pleasant predictions about Niccolò Machiavelli, as a young man of promise, who was expected to mend the broken fortunes of his ancient family.
But my lord was angry, and being disguised with liquor too, he would not let him go till they played more; and play they did, and the luck still went the same way; and my lord grew fierce over it, and cursed and drank, and that did not mend his luck you may be sure; […]
"Bring them here," / Said Ospak, "they may mend our doleful cheer."
gloss: To remove fault or sin from (someone, or their behaviour or character); to improve morally, to reform.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Youle not endure him, god ſhall mend my ſoule, / Youle make a mutinie among my gueſts: […]
I vvould thou vvert a mans tailer, that thou mightſt mend him and make him fit to goe, I cannot put him to a priuate ſouldier, that is the leader of ſo many thouſands, […]
[Philosophers] therefore thought all the Service they could do to the State they live under, vvas to mend the Lives and Manners of particular Men that compoſed it.
Good council rejected returns to enrich the giver's boſom; and though the inſtruction I communicate may not mend them, yet it vvill aſſuredly mend myſelf.
God mend all, I pray— / And keep us from all wrongdoing and wild words.
"Give thyself no trouble as to the matter of minding him, good man, I have small mind to mind him; but as to teaching him somewhat, to that I am well inclined." He turned to a subordinate and said, "Give the little fool a taste or two of the lash, to mend his manners."
shawn, To Pegeen. I was passing below, and I seen your mountainy sheep eating cabbages in Jimmy's field. Run up or they'll be bursting, surely. / pegeen. Oh, God mend them!
gloss: In mend one's pace: to adjust (a pace or speed), especially to match that of someone or something else; also, to quicken or speed up (a pace).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Cudgell thy braines no more about it, for your dull aſſe vvill not mend his pace vvith beating, […]
When children to the school at morn did pass / With basket-store, thou [a goat] mendedst then thy pace, / And boldly into every school-bag spied / With insolent but inoffensive pride, / Till, bit by bit, the morning lunch was thine, / And off you sauntered as the clock struck nine.
But though I mended my pace, I was only just in time to see them turn into - of all places - my hotel.
gloss: To correct or put right the defects, errors, or faults of (something); to amend, to emend, to fix.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
figuratively
transitive
examples: Salt Earth and bitter are not fit to ſovv, / Nor vvill be tam'd or mended vvith the Plough.
[W]here Marle is not laid too thick, nor is of too tough binding cold a quality, it vvill often mend Clays, eſpecially Grazing ground, […]
gloss: To increase the quality of (someone or something); to better, to improve on; also, to produce something better than (something else).
pos: verb
tags: archaic
figuratively
transitive
examples: [N]ay he can ſing / A meane moſt meanely, and in huſhering, / Mende him vvho can, the Ladies call him ſvveete.
Beleeu't deere Lord, / You mend the Ievvell by the vvearing it.
[William] Shakespear[e], in Hamlet, made a drama of the self-questioning that came upon him when his intellect rose up in alarm, as well it might, against the vulgar optimism of his Henry V., and yet could mend it to no better purpose than by the equally vulgar pessimism of Troilus and Cressida.
gloss: To make amends or reparation for (a wrong done); to atone.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
figuratively
transitive
examples: Yee may sir, (quoth he), mend three nayes with one yee.
Come, come, you haue bin too rough, ſomthing too rough: you muſt returne, and mend it.
gloss: To restore (someone or something) to a healthy state; to cure, to heal.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
regional
transitive
examples: Yearly thy Herds in vigour vvill impair; / Recruit and mend 'em vvith thy Yearly care: […]
We have had terrible rains these two or three days. I intended to dine at lord treasurer's, but went to see lady Abercorn, who is come to town, and my lord; and I dined with them, and visited lord treasurer this evening. His porter is mending.
O, it was a rich scene,—but Sir A—— C——, the best of story-tellers and surgeons, who mends a lame narrative almost as well as he sets a fracture, alone could do justice to it— […]
[H]ot July was drawing to an end, / And August came the fainting year to mend / With fruit and grain; […]
If we were making no progress with Haraldsen's business we were at any rate mending his health.
gloss: To adjust or correctly position (something; specifically (nautical), a sail).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: VVhy he vvill looke vppon his boote, and ſing: mend the Ruffe and ſing, aske queſtions and ſing, picke his teeth, and ſing: I knovv a man that had this tricke of melancholy hold a goodly Mannor for a ſong.
[Y]our Crovvnes avvay,^([sic – meaning awry?']) / Ile mend it, and then play— […]
Mend your lights, Gentlemen. [Stage direction in the margin:] The Tiremen enter to mend the lights.
Guiſe. […] Your Air, your Meen, your Charms, your every Grace, / VVill Kill at leaſt your thouſand in a day. / Mar[moutier]. […] Yes, I vvou'd make vvith every Glance a Murder. / Mend me this Curle.
He therefore turned the hands up, "mend sails," and took his station amidship on the booms, to see that this, the most delinquent sail, was properly furled.
gloss: To put out (a candle).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: To add one or more things in order to improve (something, especially wages); to supplement; also, to remedy a shortfall in (something).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
obsolete
transitive
examples: VVill you goe vvith me, vvee'll mend our dinner here?
Roſ[alind]. […] Buy thou the Cottage, paſture, and the flocke, / And thou ſhalt haue to pay for it of vs. / Cel[ia]. And vve vvill mend thy vvages: / I like this place, and vvillingly could / VVaſte my time in it.
Sometimes vvhite Lyllies did their Leaves afford, / VVith vvholſom Polly-flovv'rs, to mend his homely Board: […]
I was forced to lie down at twelve to day, and mend my night's sleep: […]
gloss: To relieve (distress); to alleviate, to ease.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
obsolete
transitive
gloss: To reform (oneself).
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
obsolete
reflexive
transitive
examples: [B]id the diſhoneſt man mend himſelf, if he mend, he is no longer diſhoneſt; […]
gloss: To improve the condition or fortune of (oneself or someone).
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
obsolete
reflexive
transitive
examples: [W]hatſoeuer is Nevv, is vnlooked for; And euer it mends Some, and pairs Other: […]
I vvas born indeed in your Dominions, but your ſe[r]vice vvas hard, and your vvages ſuch as a man could not live on, for the vvages of Sin is death [Romans 6:23]; therefore vvhen I vvas come to years, I did as other conſiderate perſons do, look out, if perhaps I might mend my ſelf.
[W]hether it vvas by Negligence in guarding them, or that they thought the Fellovvs could not mend themſelves, I knovv not, but one of them run avvay, and taking into the VVoods, they could never hear of him more.
After all, if the king vvere to bring himſelf to echo this nevv kind of addreſs, to adopt it in terms, and even to take the appellation of Servant of the People as his royal ſtyle, hovv either he or vve ſhould be much mended by it, I cannot imagine.
gloss: To repair the clothes of (someone).
pos: verb
tags: England
obsolete
regional
transitive
examples: "Ready?" said the old gentleman inquiringly, when his guests had been washed, mended, brushed, and brandied.
She will tend him, nurse him, mend him; / Air his linen, dry his tears. / Bless the thoughtful fates that send him / Such a wife to soothe his years!
gloss: To cause (a person or animal) to gain weight; to fatten.
pos: verb
tags: Northern-Ireland
Scotland
figuratively
obsolete
transitive
gloss: Chiefly with the impersonal pronoun it: to provide a benefit to (someone); to advantage, to profit.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
figuratively
obsolete
transitive
gloss: Of an illness: to become less severe; also, of an injury or wound, or an injured body part: to get better, to heal.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: My long ſickneſſe / Of Health, and Liuing, novv begins to mend, […]
Some days later it happened that young Heriotside was stepping home over the Lang Muir about ten at night—it being his first jaunt from home since his arm had mended.
gloss: Of a person: to become healthy again; to recover from illness.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: The queen is mending of her gout, and intends to be brought in a chair to parliament when it meets, […]
But the fever has left him, and the doctor says he will soon mend.
There's nae banes broke, and I've dressed your face wi' a sure salve. Dinna disturb the clouts, sir. Your skin's ower clean to beil [fester], and ye'll mend quick if ye let the clouts bide a wee.
gloss: Now only in least said, soonest mended: to make amends or reparation.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
figuratively
intransitive
examples: You are in a peck of troubles, as most men are who are free-livers, and are led astray by artful and alluring females. However, as Lady Betty says, 'the least said the soonest mended.'
I have not let Mr. Spencer see that I have discovered his secret, I can do that or not, according to circumstances hereafter, neither have i said any thing of my discovery to Mrs. B. or Camilla. At present, 'least said soonest mended.'
gloss: To become morally improved or reformed.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
figuratively
intransitive
examples: Let ſhame come vvhen it vvill, I doe not callit, / […] / Mend vvhen thou canſt, be better at thy leaſure, / I can be patient, […]
VVe have both of us our failings that vvay, […] but it is never over-late to mend: therefore I begin, and do penance in this vvhite ſheet for vvhat is paſs'd; I hope you vvill do the like, and ſo vve may abſolve one another vvithout a Ghoſtly Father.
But, fare you vveel, auld Nickie-ben! / O vvad ye tak a thought an’ men’!
I am afraid that you are a very foolish boy, […] but I hope to see you mend when you marry.
"Well, it's never too late to mend," said Anne roguishly.
gloss: Chiefly used together with make: to make repairs.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: An evill pen, is that vvhich is ſouple or vveake, vvhich vvhen thou makeſt, or mendeſt, muſt haue a ſhort ſlit, and bee ſuffered to remaine great on both ſides, becauſe it is vveake; […]
[T]he piece of woollen fabric which has been rejected by those who make or mend, and who must make or mend so cheaply that the veriest vagrant may be their customer, is formed not only into a new material, but into a material which sometimes is made into a new garment. These garments are inferior to those woven of new wool, both in look and wear; but in some articles the re-manufacture is beautiful.
There was a fiction in genteel families that the ladies of the house never did anything serious or serviceable after dinner; […] Why they went through this elaborate pretence I have not the least idea, because everybody knew that every girl in the place was always making, mending, cutting-out, basting, gusseting, trimming, turning, and contriving. How do you suppose that the solicitor's daughters made so brave a show on Sundays if they were not clever enough to make up things for themselves?
gloss: To advance to a better state; to become less bad or faulty; to improve.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
obsolete
examples: Then would ye mend as the fletcher mends his bolt, / Or sowre ale mendeth in summer, […]
VVhat thinke you of this foole Maluolio, doth he not mend?
I confeſs this clime (as matters go) is untovvard to improve ſuch buds of vertue, but the times may mend, novv that our King vvith the Sun, makes his approach unto us more and more: […]
St. Peters ſeldom anſvvers Expectation at firſt entering it, but enlarges it ſelf on all Sides inſenſibly, and mends upon the Eye every Moment.
[M]y friend Lewis and I dined with Kit Musgrave, if you know such a man: and, the weather mending, I walked gravely home this evening; and so I design to walk and walk till I am well: I fancy myself a little better already.
In short, the body of man is such a subject as stands the utmost test of examination. Though it appears formed with the nicest wisdom, upon the most superficial survey of it, it still mends upon the search, and produces our surprise and amazement in proportion as we pry into it.
Matters at vvorſt are ſure to mend, / The devils vvife vvas but a fiend.
VVhether it can be reaſonably hoped, that our State vvill mend, ſo long as Property is inſecure among us?
gloss: To improve in amount or price.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
obsolete
gloss: Of an error, fault, etc.: to be corrected or put right.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
obsolete
examples: Young men, whose passions are not a little unruly, give small hopes of their ever being considerable; the fire of youth will of course abate, and is a fault, if it be a fault, that mends every day; but surely, unless a man has fire in his youth, he can hardly have warmth in old age.
gloss: Followed by of: to recover from a bad state; to get better, to grow out of.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
obsolete
gloss: Of an animal: to gain weight, to fatten.
pos: verb
tags: Northern-Ireland
Scotland
figuratively
intransitive
obsolete
gloss: To advantage, to avail, to help.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
figuratively
intransitive
obsolete
gloss: Senses relating to improvement or repairing.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: My trousers have a big rip in them and need a mend.
gloss: Senses relating to improvement or repairing.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Senses relating to improvement or repairing.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Though he was fearfully weak, he found himself actually feeling better. The disease had spent itself, and the mend had begun.
"[…] Then, as luck of one sort or another would have it, I got laid out with a broken ankle on a Bombay quay."
Carrados voiced commiseration.
"But you made a very good mend of it," he said.
gloss: Recompense; restoration or reparation, especially (Christianity) from sin.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
uncountable
Derived words: bellows to mend
hell mend someone
it's never too late to mend
least said, soonest mended
make do and mend
mendable
mender
mendery
mend fences
mend one's pace
mend one's ways
mismend
on the mending hand
remend
mends
on the mend
Translations: