REFORM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Reform

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/rəfˈɔrm/ /rɪfˈɔrm/ Listen

noun

Reform n. Amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved; reformation; as, reform of elections; reform of government.

Civil service reform. See under Civil.

Reform acts (Eng. Politics), acts of Parliament passed in 1832, 1867, 1884, 1885, extending and equalizing popular representation in Parliament.

Reform school, a school established by a state or city government, for the confinement, instruction, and reformation of juvenile offenders, and of young persons of idle, vicious, and vagrant habits. (U. S.)

Synonyms: Reformation; amendment; rectification; correction. See Reformation.

verb

Reform v. t. To put into a new and improved form or condition; to restore to a former good state, or bring from bad to good; to change from worse to better; to amend; to correct; as, to reform a profligate man; to reform corrupt manners or morals. "The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it."

Synonyms: To amend; correct; emend; rectify; mend; repair; better; improve; restore; reclaim.

Reform v. i. To return to a good state; to amend or correct one's own character or habits; as, a man of settled habits of vice will seldom reform.

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Etymology of 'Reform'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Reform" Quotes from Famous Books

... see, I object to the mania for reform and end by suggesting reforms myself. Well, one must be of one's own time, and there ...

— Musical Memories • Camille Saint-Saens

... catechumens that he did not believe what the Catechism teaches of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, etc. Thus Kurtz's Lutheranism, like that of Schmucker's, deteriorated as the years rolled on. Kurtz was a fiery advocate of "new measures," revivals, protracted meetings, Sabbath- and temperance-reform, etc., and an ardent champion of "American Lutheranism" and the Definite Platform. He violently opposed every effort at Lutheranizing and confessionalizing the General Synod. Through the Lutheran ...

— American Lutheranism - Volume 2: The United Lutheran Church (General Synod, General - Council, United Synod in the South) • Friedrich Bente

... guard myself against the supposition that so true a scholar is satisfied with the system of education which exists at the present time. Dr. Jacks looks for a reform of this system, but not from the present ...

— Painted Windows - Studies in Religious Personality • Harold Begbie

... be disturbed or further opposed. This made an opportunity for a union of all elements opposed to the reelection of Grant, leading Democrats having given assurance of support to a candidate to be nominated by what had come to be called the "Liberal Reform" party. That party held its convention in Cincinnati early in May, and named Horace Greeley as its candidate, a nomination which wrecked whatever chance the party had seemed to have. Grant was renominated by acclamation ...

— Ulysses S. Grant • Walter Allen

... never be resorted to; while Austrian protection was transferred from the Pope to the disaffected party in the Church, which consisted in a large proportion of the cardinals and of the inferior clergy who were afraid that, with the reform of abuses, they would lose their influence over the lower class of their flocks. The English diplomatic agents in Italy also firmly believed that Austria coupled with her support of the ultramontane malcontents the direct encouragement ...

— The Liberation of Italy • Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco

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