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
Such men as Gladstone and Bright, who are seeking by wise legislation to remove or meliorate the evils of centuries of injustice.
From Beacon Lights of History, Volume 11 American Founders by Lord, John
Rather let us say that that is very natural which nature permits us to meliorate in her handiwork.
From The Training of a Public Speaker by Kleiser, Grenville
Some years ago several pious individuals undertook to meliorate the condition of the prisons.
From American Institutions and Their Influence by Tocqueville, Alexis de
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 Warburton, A. F.
We pass over the administration of Geary, the third of the Kansas Governors,—a period in which the ravages of the marauders were continued, but under meliorated circumstances.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 04, February, 1858 by Various
Nevertheless, man's ever active ingenuity constantly increases the number of meliorated contrivances.
From By Water to the Columbian Exposition by Wisthaler, Johanna S.
It has greatly meliorated the condition of the laborious part, that is to say, of the mass of every community, by procuring for them a day of weekly rest.
From Evidence of Christianity by Paley, William
The strength of the stalk is also diffused by it through the leaves, and the whole mass becomes equally meliorated.
From Nicotiana Or The Smoker's and Snuff-Taker's Companion by Meller, Henry James
The rice grounds are meliorated merely by letting water into them; but for the other grains, where the soil requires it, they use dung, night-soil, ashes, and the like.
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 Emerson, Ralph Waldo
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 Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary)
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 West, Jane
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
Beginning by formulating plans for meliorating the condition of the slaves on his plantation in French Guiana, his philanthropic thoughts soon turned homeward.
From Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)
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.
