meliorate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- meliorable adjective
- meliorative adjective
- meliorator noun
- unmeliorated adjective
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.
“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
These are the men of active wisdom, who lead armies to victory, and kingdoms to prosperity; or discover and improve the sciences, which meliorate and adorn the condition of humanity.
From Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus
Kindness never fails to soften and meliorate his feelings, and harshness, injury, and contempt to harden and blunt them.
From The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians by Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
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 Paine, Thomas
He said it was too late to plant maize, and therefore he should sow turnips, which would help to meliorate and prepare it for next year.
From A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson by Tench, Watkin
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.
