melioration
Americannoun
-
Historical Linguistics. semantic change in a word to a more approved or more respectable meaning.
Etymology
Origin of melioration
1620–30; < Late Latin meliōrātiōn- (stem of meliōrātiō ), equivalent to meliōrāt ( us ) ( meliorate ) + -iōn- -ion
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.
But professional reformation or melioration is usually an organic, incremental process.
From BusinessWeek • Nov. 22, 2011
Do not let the dying die: hold them back to this world, until you have charged their ear and heart with this message to other spiritual societies, announcing the melioration of our planet.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 by Various
Population does not increase, and the thinly-scattered inhabitants are too much absorbed in the cares of self-defence even to attempt any melioration of their condition.
From American Institutions and Their Influence by Tocqueville, Alexis de
He demanded seven hundred pounds for the ground, and to be excused paying anything for the melioration of the rest of his ground that he was to keep.
From Old and New London Volume I by Thornbury, Walter
To provide the additional acreage needed for crop expansion, large-scale programs of land reclamation and melioration have been executed.
From Area Handbook for Albania by Elpern, Sarah Jane
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.
