meliorate

American  

[meel-yuh-reyt, mee-lee-uh-] / ˈmil yəˌreɪt, ˈmi li ə- /

verb (used with or without object)

meliorated, meliorating

1. ameliorate.

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meliorate British  

/ ˈmiːlɪəˌreɪt, ˈmiːlɪərətɪv /

verb

1. a variant of ameliorate

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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

“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

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 Burns, Robert

The duty devolved upon me, to seek to meliorate their sad condition, as degraded and emaciated, wandering in ignorance, and wearing away a short existence in one continued succession of hardships in procuring food.

From The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America and Frequent Excursions Among the North-West American Indians, In the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823. by West, John

It is no less the characteristic of real friendship to endeavour to meliorate than to preserve from sufferings.

From A Series of Letters in Defence of Divine Revelation by Ballou, Hosea

The war concluded, his attention was directed to Italy, and he sought to meliorate the condition of that country; but Austria would not hear even of the discussion of Italian affairs.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 22, August, 1859 by Various