- present participle of mend.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mending
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at mend, -ing 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:
Parker has been mending rifts professionally for 25 years, but she insists that her skill set shouldn’t be special.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The court previously heard Dyson had been living in his car outside Wright's cottage on Sheffield Road in Hoyland, often helping him with various jobs like cutting hedges, mending tractors and driving him to appointments.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
The company has made some progress mending relationships with retailers in the U.S., where sales have improved.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
"You don't get many people mending raw cashmere," said Wade, whose role is to meticulously inspect and darn any defects in the fabric by hand, before it is washed, cut and shipped around the world.
From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 2026
There was always something to find fault with for Shasta had plenty of work to do, mending and washing the nets, cooking the supper, and cleaning the cottage in which they both lived.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
Their pieces of clothing appear like new mendings on old rags, or like a substantial shawl thrown over scanty vestments.
From The Delight Makers by Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier
The tire was already somewhat of a patched affair, bearing evidences of former punctures and mendings.
From The Rival Campers Ashore The Mystery of the Mill by Ruel Perley Smith
Amongst his various mendings of old shoes at Callerton.
From Lives of the Engineers The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson by Samuel Smiles
The seams were white, the edges curled, the buttonholes torn in spite of many mendings; the whole presenting to the most unobservant eyes the heart-breaking stigmas of honest penury.
From The Brotherhood of Consolation by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
They had worn through the various mendings the pocket had sustained and sought their liberty in the sands of Carolina.
From John Marshall and the Constitution; a chronicle of the Supreme court by Edward Samuel Corwin
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.
