Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-MEND', v.t. [Fr. amender; L. emendo, of e neg. and menda, mendum, a fault; W. mann, a spot or blemish; Sp. and Port. emendar; It. ammendare. See Mend.]

1. To correct; to rectify by expunging a mistake; as, to amend a law.
2. To reform, by quitting bad habits; to make better in a moral sense; as, to amend our ways or our conduct.
3. To correct; to supply a defect; to improve or make better, by some addition of what is wanted, as well as by expunging what is wrong; as, to amend a bill before a legislature. Hence it is applied to the correction of authors, by restoring passages which had been omitted, or restoring the true reading.