melioration
Americannoun
-
Historical Linguistics. semantic change in a word to a more approved or more respectable meaning.
noun
Etymology
Origin of melioration
1620–30; < Late Latin meliōrātiōn- (stem of meliōrātiō ), equivalent to meliōrāt ( us ) ( see meliorate) + -iōn- -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But professional reformation or melioration is usually an organic, incremental process.
From BusinessWeek • Nov. 22, 2011
He demanded seven hundred pounds for the ground, and to be excused paying anything for the melioration of the rest of his ground that he was to keep.
From Old and New London Volume I by Thornbury, Walter
By parliamentary enactments, by colonial arrangements, by appeals to the judgment and feelings of planters, and by various other means, a certain degree of melioration may be secured.
From Thoughts on African Colonization by Garrison, William Lloyd
In respect to the instruction and melioration of the situation of the common people, we find as yet no attention whatever paid to these important subjects.
From Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations by Robinson, Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob
“No great melioration of the human condition was ever achieved without the concurrent effort of numbers; and no extended and well-directed association of moral influence was ever made in vain.”
From Select Temperance Tracts by American Tract Society
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
