mend

To physically repair (something that is broken, defaced, decayed, torn, or otherwise damaged).transitive

• 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.

To add fuel to (a fire).figurativelytransitive

• [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.

To correct or put right (an error, a fault, etc.); to rectify, to remedy.figurativelytransitive

• 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.

To put (something) in a better state; to ameliorate, to improve, to reform, to set right.figurativelytransitive

• Her stutter was mended by a speech therapist.
• My broken heart was mended.

To remove fault or sin from (someone, or their behaviour or character); to improve morally, to reform.figurativelytransitive

• 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, […]

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).figurativelytransitive

• Cudgell thy braines no more about it, for your dull aſſe vvill not mend his pace vvith beating, […]
• But though I mended my pace, I was only just in time to see them turn into - of all places - my hotel.

To correct or put right the defects, errors, or faults of (something); to amend, to emend, to fix.archaicfigurativelytransitive

• 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, […]

To increase the quality of (someone or something); to better, to improve on; also, to produce something better than (something else).archaicfigurativelytransitive

• [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.

To make amends or reparation for (a wrong done); to atone.archaicfigurativelytransitive

• 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.

To restore (someone or something) to a healthy state; to cure, to heal.figurativelyregionaltransitive

• Yearly thy Herds in vigour vvill impair; / Recruit and mend 'em vvith thy Yearly care: […]
• 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— […]

Senses relating to improvement or repairing.; An act of repairing.countableuncountable

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

Senses relating to improvement or repairing.; A place in a thing (such as a tear in clothing) which has been repaired.countableuncountable

Senses relating to improvement or repairing.; Chiefly in on the mend: improvement in health; recovery from illness.countableuncountable

• 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.

Recompense; restoration or reparation, especially (Christianity) from sin.obsoleteuncountable