REFORM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does reform mean? 

• REFORM (noun)
  The noun REFORM has 3 senses:

1. a change for the better as a result of correcting abuses

2. a campaign aimed to correct abuses or malpractices

3. self-improvement in behavior or morals by abandoning some vice

  Familiarity information: REFORM used as a noun is uncommon.

• REFORM (verb)
  The verb REFORM has 6 senses:

1. make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices

2. bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life, conduct, and adopt a right one

3. produce by cracking

4. break up the molecules of

5. improve by alteration or correction of errors or defects and put into a better condition

6. change for the better

  Familiarity information: REFORM used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REFORM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A change for the better as a result of correcting abuses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

justice was for sale before the reform of the law courts

Hypernyms ("reform" is a kind of...):

improvement (the act of improving something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reform"):

land reform (a redistribution of agricultural land (especially by government action))

moralisation; moralization (the act of making moral (or more moral))

housecleaning ((figurative) the act of reforming by the removal of unwanted personnel or practices or conditions)

Derivation:

reform (improve by alteration or correction of errors or defects and put into a better condition)

reform (make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A campaign aimed to correct abuses or malpractices

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

the reforms he proposed were too radical for the politicians

Hypernyms ("reform" is a kind of...):

campaign; cause; crusade; drive; effort; movement (a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end)

Derivation:

reform (make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Self-improvement in behavior or morals by abandoning some vice

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

the family rejoiced in the drunkard's reform

Hypernyms ("reform" is a kind of...):

self-improvement; self-reformation (the act of improving yourself)

Derivation:

reform (change for the better)

reform (bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life, conduct, and adopt a right one)

• REFORM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they reform    ... he / she / it reforms   
Past simple: reformed   
Past participle: reformed   
-ing form: reforming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

reform a political system

Hypernyms (to "reform" is one way to...):

ameliorate; amend; better; improve; meliorate (to make better)

Verb group:

reform (improve by alteration or correction of errors or defects and put into a better condition)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

reformative (tending to reform)

reformist; reformer (a disputant who advocates reform)

reformation (rescuing from error and returning to a rightful course)

reform (a campaign aimed to correct abuses or malpractices)

reform (a change for the better as a result of correcting abuses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life, conduct, and adopt a right one

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

reclaim; rectify; reform; regenerate

Context example:

reform your conduct

Hypernyms (to "reform" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Verb group:

reform; see the light; straighten out (change for the better)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "reform"):

moralise; moralize (improve the morals of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

reform (self-improvement in behavior or morals by abandoning some vice)

reformation (rescuing from error and returning to a rightful course)

reformative; reformatory (tending to reform)

reformist (a disputant who advocates reform)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Produce by cracking

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

reform gas

Hypernyms (to "reform" is one way to...):

create from raw material; create from raw stuff (make from scratch)

Domain category:

chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Break up the molecules of

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

reform oil

Hypernyms (to "reform" is one way to...):

change integrity (change in physical make-up)

Domain category:

chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

reformer (an apparatus that reforms the molecular structure of hydrocarbons to produce richer fuel)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Improve by alteration or correction of errors or defects and put into a better condition

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

reform the health system in this country

Hypernyms (to "reform" is one way to...):

ameliorate; amend; better; improve; meliorate (to make better)

Verb group:

reform (make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

reform (a change for the better as a result of correcting abuses)

reformation (improvement (or an intended improvement) in the existing form or condition of institutions or practices etc.; intended to make a striking change for the better in social or political or religious affairs)

reformist (a disputant who advocates reform)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Change for the better

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

reform; see the light; straighten out

Context example:

the habitual cheater finally saw the light

Hypernyms (to "reform" is one way to...):

ameliorate; better; improve; meliorate (get better)

Verb group:

reclaim; rectify; reform; regenerate (bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life, conduct, and adopt a right one)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

reform (self-improvement in behavior or morals by abandoning some vice)

reformation (rescuing from error and returning to a rightful course)

reformatory (tending to reform)

 Context examples 

She would have been glad to know when these difficulties were to cease, this opposition was to yield,—when Mrs. Ferrars would be reformed, and her son be at liberty to be happy.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I'm afraid I've numbed my hand in vain. The young man cannot reform.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In addition to regulating spindle formation, Ran may also help reform the nuclear envelope after cell division and may use a similar mechanism to regulate other cellular processes.

(Mitotic Spindle Regulation Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

Reformation may be its cure; and I could reform—I have strength yet for that—if—but where is the use of thinking of it, hampered, burdened, cursed as I am?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

That a girl of fourteen, acting only on her own unassisted reason, should err in the method of reform, was not wonderful; and Fanny soon became more disposed to admire the natural light of the mind which could so early distinguish justly, than to censure severely the faults of conduct to which it led.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

However, in addition to looking globally at primary sources of OH and the amount of methane and other gases it breaks down, this new research takes into account secondary OH sources, recycling that happens after OH breaks down methane and reforms in the presence of other gases, which has been observed on regional scales before.

(Greenhouse Gas ‘Detergent’ Recycles Itself in Atmosphere, NASA)

I must freely confess, that since my last return, some corruptions of my Yahoo nature have revived in me by conversing with a few of your species, and particularly those of my own family, by an unavoidable necessity; else I should never have attempted so absurd a project as that of reforming the Yahoo race in this kingdom: But I have now done with all such visionary schemes for ever.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Each time a moon broke apart and reformed from the resulting ring, its successor moon would be five times smaller than the last, according to the model, and debris would have rained down on the planet, possibly explaining enigmatic sedimentary deposits found near Mars' equator.

(Does Mars Have Rings? Not Right Now, But Maybe One Day, NASA)

Discontented people might talk of corruption in the Commons, closeness in the Commons, and the necessity of reforming the Commons, said Mr. Spenlow solemnly, in conclusion; but when the price of wheat per bushel had been highest, the Commons had been busiest; and a man might lay his hand upon his heart, and say this to the whole world,—Touch the Commons, and down comes the country!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Little has changed in the land distribution of the devastation: the largest portion of the total area deforested over the 12-month period consisted of private properties (35.4%), followed by land reform settlements (28.6%), unassigned public land (24%) and conservancy units (12%).

(Amazon lost 7,989 km² of forest in 12 months, Agência Brasil)