mendment

[Eng. amend; -ment. In Ger. & Fr. a men dement.] A. Ord. Lang.: A change from something ami to what is better. "We stedfastly and unanimously believe both his [Homer's] poem and our constitution to be the best that ever human wit invented that the one is not more incapable of amendment than the other -Pope: Homer's Ody ey, P.S. Specially: I. Of persons: 1. Change from a state of sickne to, or in the direction of health. "Serv. Your honour's players, hearing your amend Are come to play a pleasant comedy, [ ment , For so your doctors hold it very meet." Shakesp.: Taming of the Shrew , Induction, ii. 2. The removal of intellectual faults or deficiencies. "There are many natural defects in the understanding capable of amendment , which are over loo and wholly neglected."-Locke. 3. Improvement or reformation of moral conduct. "Behold! famine and plague, tribulation and anguish, are sent as scourges for amendment ."-2 Esdras xvi. 19. II. Of things: The removal of defects. "Before it was presented on the stage, some things In it have pa ed your approbation and amendment." -Dryden. B. Technically : 1. Law : The correction of any mistake discovered in a writ or proce . 2. Legislative Proceedings: A clause, sentence, or paragraph proposed to be substituted for another, or to be inserted in a bill before Parliament, and which, if carried, actually becomes part of the bill itself. (As a rule, amendments do not overthrow the principle of a bill.) "The Lords agreed to the bill without amendments; and the King gave his a ent." - Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xvi. 3. Public Meetings: A proposed alteration on the terms of a motion laid before a meeting for acceptance. This "amendment" may be so much at variance with the e ential character of the motion, that a counter motion would be its more appropriate name.