Search the Dictionary

To make better; to improve; to ameliorate; to soften; to make more tolerable. Nature by art we nobly meliorate. Denham. The pure and bening light of revelation has had a meliorating influence on mankind. Washington.

Same as Meliorator.

To make better; to improve; to meliorate. In every human being there is a wish to ameliorate his own condition. Macaulay.

Capable of being ameliorated.

The act of ameliorating, or the state of being ameliorated; making or becoming better; improvement; melioration. "Amelioration of human affairs." J. S. Mill.

Tending to ameliorate; producing amelioration or improvement; as, ameliorative remedies, efforts.

One who ameliorates.

To improve or ameliorate; to increase the good qualities of. Love betters what is best. Wordsworth. He thought to better his circumstances. Thackeray.

To become or be made more humane; to become civilized; to be ameliorated. By the original law of nations, war and extirpation were the punishment of injury. Humanizing by degrees, it admitted slavery instead of death; a further step was the exchange of prisoners instead of slavery. Franklin.

To make better; to increase the value or good qualities of; to ameliorate by care or cultivation; as, to improve land. Donne. I love not to improve the honor of the living by impairing that of the dead. Denham.

The act or operation of meliorating, or the state of being meliorated; improvement. Bacon.

One who meliorates.

To make less severe, intense, harsh, rigorous, painful, etc.; to soften; to meliorate; to alleviate; to diminish; to lessen; as, to mitigate heat or cold; to mitigate grief.