Wiktionary

rectify

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English rectifien, from Anglo-Norman rectifiier, rectefier (“to make straight”), from Medieval Latin rēctificō (“to make right”), from Latin rēctus (“straight”).

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈɹɛktəˌfaɪ/
  • Audio (UK)(file)

Verb edit

rectify (third-person singular simple present rectifies, present participle rectifying, simple past and past participle rectified)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To heal (an organ or part of the body). [14th–18th c.]
  2. (transitive) To restore (someone or something) to its proper condition; to straighten out, to set right. [from 16th c.]
  3. (transitive) To remedy or fix (an undesirable state of affairs, situation etc.). [from 15th c.]
    to rectify the crisis
  4. (transitive, chemistry) To purify or refine (a substance) by distillation. [from 15th c.]
  5. (transitive) To correct or amend (a mistake, defect etc.). [from 16th c.]
  6. (transitive, now rare) To correct (someone who is mistaken). [from 16th c.]
    • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3:
      For thus their Sense informeth them, and herein their Reason cannot Rectifie them; and therefore hopelessly continuing in mistakes, they live and die in their absurdities […]
  7. (transitive, geodesy, historical) To adjust (a globe or sundial) to prepare for the solution of a proposed problem. [from 16th c.]
  8. (transitive, electronics) To convert (alternating current) into direct current. [from 19th c.]
  9. (transitive, mathematics) To determine the length of a curve included between two limits.
  10. (transitive) To produce (as factitious gin or brandy) by redistilling bad wines or strong spirits (whisky, rum, etc.) with flavourings.

Synonyms edit

Derived terms edit

Derived terms

Translations edit

to heal — see heal

Anagrams edit

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