mend one's ways

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Improve one's behavior, as in Threatened with suspension, Jerry promised to mend his ways. This expression, transferring a repair of clothes to one of character, was first recorded in 1868, but 150 or so years earlier it had appeared as mend one's manners.

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body of land completely surrounded by water
group of cultivated fruit trees
long mournful cry
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Words nearby mend one's ways

mencius, mencken, mencken, h. l., mend, mend one's fences, mend one's ways, mendacious, mendacity, mende, mendel, mendel's first law
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.