- a variation of ameliorate.
meliorate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of meliorate
1545–55; < Latin meliōrātus (past participle of meliōrāre ) to make better, improve, equivalent to meliōr- (stem of melior ) better + -ātus -ate 1
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.
See Examples For:
“I consider such easy vehicles of knowledge, more happily calculated than any other, to preserve the liberty, stimulate the industry and meliorate the morals of an enlightened and free People.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2021
I have no interest distinct from that which has a tendency to meliorate the situation of mankind.
From The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Volume III. 1791-1804 by Thomas Paine
It has been thought by many that frosts meliorate the ground, and that they are in general salubrious to mankind.
From The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation by Erasmus Darwin
Now, our Government has never departed from its purpose and its policy, to meliorate the law of nations, so as to extirpate this business of private war on the ocean.
From Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York by A. F. Warburton
When yellow waves the heavy grain, The threat’ning storm some, strongly, rein; Some teach to meliorate the plain, With tillage-skill; And some instruct the shepherd-train, Blythe o’er the hill.
From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Robert Burns
Nevertheless, man's ever active ingenuity constantly increases the number of meliorated contrivances.
From By Water to the Columbian Exposition by Johanna S. Wisthaler
I have been told by my mother that he found the navy very intolerable;—the mutiny at the Nore had not yet meliorated the service to the common sailor.
From My Schools and Schoolmasters or The Story of my Education. by Hugh Miller
Tupia had much meliorated the root of the coccos, by giving them a long dressing in his country oven, but they were so small that we did not think them an object for the ship.
From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13 by Robert Kerr
The potatoes, which had first been brought from the Cape of Good Hope, were greatly meliorated by change of soil; and, with proper cultivation, would be superior to those produced in most other countries.
From Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook : with an Account of His Life During the Previous and Intervening Periods by Andrew Kippis
That something the manure of birds, meliorated and altered by time, had supplied, and lo! the glorious results were before his eyes.
From The Crater by James Fenimore Cooper
Old cheese has a remarkable effect in meliorating the apple when eaten; probably from the volatile alkali or ammonia of the cheese neutralizing its acid.
From The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton
Perhaps next in importance in meliorating the condition of the slaves, is the adoption of regulations for their religious instruction, and the education of their children.
From The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921 by Various
Yet the pious admonitions of her father, and the example of her cousin, assisted by the meliorating influence of time, had a gradual though slow effect, in changing grief into meek resignation.
From The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 An Historical Novel by Jane West
One of his meliorating comforts had been the thought that however bitter his own disappointment was, Elinor at least was happy.
From The Grafters by Francis Lynde
And many a thousand summers My apples ripened well, And light from meliorating stars With firmer glory fell.
From May-Day and Other Pieces by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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.
