mend
/mɛnd
/verb [with object]
1Repair (something that is broken or damaged): workmen were mending faulty cabling...
- The faulty shearing machines are repaired, the broken cobbles are mended and the new by-pass built.
- The crucially important thing now is that whatever fences were damaged or knocked are mended and rebuilt, and that we get on with the forthcoming challenges with a united front.
- It was not easy to find people to mend your shoes, repair your broken zipper or anything else that might be of minor importance but that is necessary for daily life.
Synonyms
repair, fix, put back together, piece together, patch up, restore, sew (up), stitch, darn, patch, cobble, botch, vamp (up);
rehabilitate, renew, renovate, redevelop, overhaul, recondition, rebuild, refurbish;
make whole, make well, cure, heal;
Northern English fettle, spetch;
Scottish & Northern English ranter
archaic clout, tinker, beet
1.1 [no object] Return to health; heal: foot injuries can take months to mend...
- I felt much better than I had earlier that day, my bones mending and bruises healing.
- A technique called pulse magnetic therapy is used to heal broken bones that won't mend under plaster, and it has also been shown to help with arthritis.
- Fractured vertebrae do heal, but they become compressed, and may mend in a wedge shape.
Synonyms
get better, get well, recover, be on the road to recovery, pull through, recuperate, convalesce, improve, be well, be cured, be all right, heal, knit, draw together
1.2Improve (an unpleasant situation): quarrels could be mended by talking...
- Drastic decisions should essentially be avoided unless you have done everything you sincerely feel you should have in order to mend the adverse situation.
- To mend the situation Dr. Morrow suggests that each partner demonstrate how important the relationship is by making changes in behavior such as putting each other first and the family second.
- She was in inescapable misery and I knew what that was like; not for the same reasons, but to be in a situation that would never mend itself, no matter what you did or how hard you tried to think a way out of it.
Synonyms
put/set right, set straight, make up, straighten out, sort out, put in order, rectify, remedy, right, redress, resolve, square, settle, put to rights, correct, amend, emend, retrieve, improve, make better, better, make good, ameliorate, reform
2Add fuel to (a fire): he mended the fire and turned the meat on the greenwood racks...
- When he mended the fire in the big living room, he would linger as long as he could beside the glowing coals, for although the fire burnt all day, the rest of the room remained cold.
- He put a big pot on, mended the fire, and lit his pipe.
Synonyms
stoke (up), make up, charge, fuel
noun
A repair in a material: the mend was barely visible...
- A devout cowboy lost his favourite Bible while he was mending fences out on the range.
- Subsequently, the mend in the fabric had parted and the rent now revealed a knee with well-preserved skin covering some musculature.
- There is a mend in the seam section on the bias and the seam running underneath the bust needs some stitch re-enforcement.
Phrases
mend (one's) fences
mend one's manners
mend one's ways
on the mend
mend one's pace
Derivatives
mendable
- Occasionally a couple of gentlemen have appealed for old, obsolete or broken but mendable woodworking tools.
- In recent years, materials scientists have been trying to emulate this capability by developing synthetic self-healing or easily mendable materials for products ranging from aerospace parts to athletic gear.
- A pit in the Panayia field, west of the long sixth-century building, yielded a large quantity of mendable pottery including a wide variety of amphoras.
mender
/ noun ...- Writers, actors, radio presenters, road menders… and we all convened at his at half seven - just in time to head off again in the cars and get lost between there and a restaurant a mile away.
- The quote was based on photographs taken of the cloak, as Steinhauser would not allow Graham to take the cloak to the menders, based in London.
- A skilful patient mender will repair the cloth so that you simply cannot see where the hole was.
Origin
Middle English: shortening of amend.
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’.