mend 
mend (mend)
transitive verb
- to repair (something broken, torn, or worn); restore to good condition; make whole; fix
- to make better; improve; reform; set right to mend one's manners
- to atone for; make amends for: now only in least said, soonest mended
Etymology: ME menden, aphetic < amenden, amend
intransitive verb
- to get better; improve, esp. in health
- to grow together again or heal, as a fracture
noun
- the act of mending; improvement
- a mended place, as on a garment
on the mend
mend
v.
To repair
repair, patch, patch up, darn, sew, fix, restore, reconstruct, retouch, put in shape, heal, put back together, cobble, doctor*; see also reconstruct, repair, restore 3.To improve
Reform
regenerate, behave, mend one's manners, mend one's ways; see improve 2, reform 3.To get well
recover, respond to medication, knit; see heal 1, recover 3.
mend is the general word implying the making whole again of something that has been broken, torn, etc. to mend a toy, to mend a dress; repair, often equivalent to mend, is preferred when the object is a relatively complex one that has become damaged or decayed through use, age, exhaustion, etc. to repair an automobile, to repair a radio; patch and darn imply the mending of a hole, tear, etc., the former by inserting or applying a piece of similar material to patch a coat, to patch a tire, the latter by sewing a network of stitches across the gap to darn a sock
on the mend
Object
- puncture: Don't waste time trying to mend a puncture by the side of the road.
- fence: One autumn day the farmer returned home from spending the day mending fences on the moorland edge.
- rift: Not only did he have to pacify the tribes, but also mend rifts between the Roman legions.
- ty: The two countries have been stepping up efforts to mend ties since reformist governments came to power in Zagreb and Belgrade in 2000.
- leak: Hope they've mended the leak in the dressing room ceiling!
- clothes: The making of their own and children's apparel, and mending clothes for both sexes, young and old.
Converse of object
- make: Helen's Spiritualist friends say that during his visits to her cell Prime Minister Churchill made promises of making mends to Helen.
Subject
- kindness: A fractured world is mended by the kindness of strangers.
- mean: Whichever, my disordered mind takes great comfort in seeing stationary secured, sealed or mended by means of transparent cellulose.
Modifying Another Word
- soon: We have a few bruises which will soon mend.
- never: They mend the streets, but they never mend anything that is about us or belongs to us.
- well: They are often in good condition and can be very well mended and becoming very silver once again.
- now: The ligament reconstruction went well and I'm on the mend now.
- n't: He does n't mend things that aren't broken.
- not: Having a reconstruction will not mend sexual problems with a partner or change the way they feel about you.
Used with why or when
- when: A puncture was quickly mended when everyone lent a hand or tool to the process.
- what: I'll send him a message he'll understand that I'll mend what I have done.
Preposition: in
- time: The neck, just above the handle join, has been broken and mended in modern times.
Preposition: by
This world is bad enough maybe; We do not comprehend it; But in one fact can all agree God won't, and we can't mend it.
Browse dictionary entries near mend
- ‹ Mencken
- ‹ Mencius
- ‹ menarche
- ‹ Menander
- ‹ Menam
- ‹ Menai Strait
- ‹ menagerie
- ‹ menage
- ‹ Menado
- ‹ menadione
- mendable ›
- mendacious ›
- mendaciously ›
- mendaciousness ›
- mendacities ›
- mendacity ›
- Mende ›
- mended ›
- Mendel ›
- Mendel's laws ›
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