mend

Etymology

From Middle English menden, by apheresis for amenden (“to amend”); see amend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛnd/
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Noun

mend (plural mends)

1. A place, as in clothing, which has been repaired by mending.
2. The act of repairing.

   My trousers have a big rip in them and need a mend.

Verb

mend (third-person singular simple present mends, present participle mending, simple past and past participle mended)

1. (transitive) To repair, as anything that is torn, broken, defaced, decayed, or the like; to restore from partial decay, injury, or defacement.

   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.

2. (transitive) To alter for the better; to set right; to reform; hence, to quicken; as, to mend one's manners or pace.

   Her stutter was mended by a speech therapist.

   My broken heart was mended.

   • Sir W. Temple

     The best service they could do the state was to mend the lives of the persons who composed it.

3. (transitive) To help, to advance, to further; to add to.
   • Mortimer

     Though in some lands the grass is but short, yet it mends garden herbs and fruit.

   • Shakespeare

     You mend the jewel by wearing it.

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

     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 […]

4. (intransitive) To grow better; to advance to a better state; to become improved.

Related terms

• amend

Further reading

• mend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• mend in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• mend at OneLook Dictionary Search