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Rectify   Listen
verb
Rectify  v. t.  (past & past part. rectified; pres. part. rectifying)  
1.
To make or set right; to correct from a wrong, erroneous, or false state; to amend; as, to rectify errors, mistakes, or abuses; to rectify the will, the judgment, opinions; to rectify disorders. "I meant to rectify my conscience." "This was an error of opinion which a conflicting opinion would have rectified."
2.
(Chem.) To refine or purify by repeated distillation or sublimation, by which the fine parts of a substance are separated from the grosser; as, to rectify spirit of wine.
3.
(Com.) To produce ( as factitious gin or brandy) by redistilling low wines or ardent spirits (whisky, rum, etc.), flavoring substances, etc., being added.
To rectify a globe, to adjust it in order to prepare for the solution of a proposed problem.
Synonyms: To amend; emend; correct; better; mend; reform; redress; adjust; regulate; improve. See Amend.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Rectify" Quotes from Famous Books



... self-complacency necessary to the orator in any surroundings, and that golden certainty which has enchanted me in the outpourings of great men, whether in ink or speech. This is, however, a matter which I can rectify with practice." And coming to a little may-tree in full blossom, he thus ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... anything." There being no bell, he had raised and let fall the great knocker, and then stood still in the sunshine looking placidly about him. The desolation of the park left him unmoved. Money, judiciously expended, could rectify that. And the house seemed sound enough. They knew how to build in the old days. Colonel Winchester was probably using only one wing for the present. In time to come, possibly ... Mr. Plowman ...
— Anthony Lyveden • Dornford Yates

... the level of his head. It grew increasingly difficult for him alone to hoist the logs into place. The door and window spaces were out of square. Without help he did not see how he was going to rectify these small errors and get the roof on. Even after it should be roofed, the cracks chinked and daubed with mud, the doors and ...
— Burned Bridges • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... you, particularly when I saw how it grieved my brother William to have you go away. If I blundered then, I'm sorry; and perhaps I did blunder. At all events, that is only the more reason now why I am so anxious to do what I can to rectify that old ...
— Miss Billy • Eleanor H. Porter

... important safeguard. This, however, was only a secondary possibility. He knew that Eve had written this thing, and he wished to have the opportunity of correcting one or two small mistakes which he anticipated, and which he felt that he himself alone could rectify. ...
— The Grey Lady • Henry Seton Merriman

... time goes on it is hoped that it will be possible to improve further the necessarily austere conditions of the military discipline to which the prisoners are bound to be subjected, and every endeavour is being made already to rectify any mistakes that may have occurred, both in the arrest of persons who should properly be exempt, and in the regime, which, through its hurried organisation, could not fail to contain a certain number ...
— The Better Germany in War Time - Being some Facts towards Fellowship • Harold Picton

... him to the garden-gate, and watched him slowly walk away into the thickening twilight with a relaxed rigidity that tried to rectify itself. "He is offended, excited, bewildered, perplexed—and enchanted!" Felix said to himself. "That ...
— The Europeans • Henry James

... which it started; thus, in effect, reversing the role of the French army which charged up a hill and then charged down again. The Seventh Michigan having received orders to follow the other regiment, obeyed and did not see the mistake until too late to rectify it, much to the chagrin of that gallant officer, Lieutenant Colonel Brewer, who commanded it, and who later in the day, laid down ...
— Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman - With Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War • J. H. (James Harvey) Kidd

... earlier age; and of the great improvements which have been made even in the common country schools. The disadvantages of my early education I have experienced during life; and, among various others, the acquiring of a very faulty pronunciation; a habit contracted so early, that I cannot wholly rectify it ...
— Woman's Life in Colonial Days • Carl Holliday

... true devotion, God would so handle the matter, that it should be to the comfort of all England, and so show us mercy as he showed unto the children of Israel. And surely, brethren, there will come to us a good man that will rectify these monasteries again that be now supprest, because "God can of these stones raise up ...
— Short Studies on Great Subjects • James Anthony Froude

... it is necessary to make some measurements to determine its full length. Remove both cap jewels and screw the balance cock in place. Examine the cock and see if it has at any time been bent up or down or punched to raise or lower it. If so, rectify the error by straightening it and then put it in place. Now with a degree gauge, or calipers, proceed to take the distance between the outer surfaces of the hole jewels and shorten the staff to the required length. Do not remove ...
— A Treatise on Staff Making and Pivoting • Eugene E. Hall

... I.L. Wynne, Esq., of Jamaica. In this he gave an afflicting account of the suffering and unprotected state of the slaves there, which it was high time to rectify. He congratulated the committee on their institution, which he thought would tend to promote so desirable an end; but desired them not to stop short of the total abolition of the Slave Trade, as no other measure would prove effectual ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the - Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) • Thomas Clarkson

... made a bad blunder, which I attempted to rectify by reaching Buffalo that night; but Tom Barrett had won the game. I was arrested at Fort Erie, handcuffed, jailed, tried, convicted of attempted assault and illicit whiskey-trading on the Grand River Indian Reserve—and spent the next five years ...
— The Moccasin Maker • E. Pauline Johnson

... be drawn in strong, vivid colours; and to that end that immoral sentiments, forcibly expressed and speciously maintained, be sometimes imputed to the speakers. Hence the sound philosophy of the chorus will be constantly wanting, to rectify the wrong conclusions of the audience, and prevent the ill impressions that might otherwise be made upon it. Nor let any one say, that the audience is well able to do this for itself: Euripides did not find ...
— The Art Of Poetry An Epistle To The Pisos - Q. Horatii Flacci Epistola Ad Pisones, De Arte Poetica. • Horace

... "The truth is I ought to have gone south, as I meant to do last week. But one cannot foresee everything. The winters have been open until Christmas so often lately. However, I made a mistake and I am perfectly willing to rectify it. If you have no objection, I'll go and bring her ...
— The Burglar and the Blizzard • Alice Duer Miller

... proportions, laws that may be engrossed upon a finger nail, are sufficient, on the whole, to maintain the equilibrium of pleasurable existence. Yet, if once that equilibrium is disturbed, where is the science oftentimes deep enough to rectify the unfathomable watch-work? Even the simplicities of planetary motions do not escape distortion: nor is it easy to be convinced that the distortion is in the eye which beholds, not in the object beheld. Let a planet be wheeling with heavenly ...
— Theological Essays and Other Papers v1 • Thomas de Quincey

... a maze as e'er men trod; And there is in this business more than nature Was ever conduct of: some oracle Must rectify our knowledge. ...
— The Tempest - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare

... our only and necessary guide; but, knowing the variable part of our judgment, and knowing how very likely we are to be mistaken in our "think so's" and "feel so's," we should ever be on the alert to verify or rectify our convictions by the help of experience and facts. The question as to how much of our intellectual power is intuitive and innate, or how much is acquired and dependent upon truth learned by induction, is not so important after all. For the powers ...
— To Infidelity and Back • Henry F. Lutz

... rectify his mistake of the morning, and make his brother understand that he had repented of the determination he had made to work against him, and that he was going to do all he could to assist him. He tried to do this, as we know, but did not succeed, ...
— The Boy Trapper • Harry Castlemon

... yet another feature which we must rectify; cow's milk is acid, while human milk is alkaline. To overcome this difference we add lime-water. We must also take into consideration that cow's milk is ordinarily full of germs, while human milk is free from them; to overcome this danger we resort to heating the milk to a degree ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Vol 2 (of 4) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • W. Grant Hague

... why he did it, told him he gave too much, and said it would not be to his own advantage. Now mark the answer of this man. "God Almighty has permitted me but one journey through the world; and when gone I cannot return to rectify mistakes." ...
— Life and Literature - Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, - and classified in alphabetical order • J. Purver Richardson

... enables him to invest it judiciously; and meanwhile, if wise, he will spend every shilling as though it were his last; but if his capital consists only of the trifle in his purse, no matter, the way he is setting to work will soon rectify that deficiency, and he stands a good chance in a few years of returning to England a ...
— A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53. • Mrs. Charles (Ellen) Clacey

... onely a little breath of moist or dry Air, or a small atome almost of water or liquor, and a little heat to make it again evaporate, for, by holding this Beard, plac'd and fix'd as I before directed, neer a Fire, and dipping the tip of a small shred of Paper in well rectify'd spirit of Wine, and then touching the wreath'd Cylindrical part, you may perceive it to untwist it self; and presently again, upon the avolation of the spirit, by the great heat, it will re-twist it self, and thus will it move forward and backwards as oft as you repeat the touching ...
— Micrographia • Robert Hooke

... but still the shells fell to the left, and an additional correction was necessary. It is comparatively easy to make corrections in elevation or depression that will rectify errors in shooting short of or beyond a mark. It is not so easy to make the same corrections in what, for the sake of simplicity, may be called right or left errors, that is horizontal firing. To make these corrections ...
— Air Service Boys in the Big Battle • Charles Amory Beach

... with tentative opinion, and identified with the instruments of the day. There results a confusion of mind that fails to distinguish the essence from the accident, and aims to destroy where there is need to rectify. Because government is clumsy and costly, it is proposed to abolish government; because education is artificial and constraining, society is exhorted to return to the easy course of nature; metaphysics must be swept away, because the {3} metaphysics of some time or school has ...
— The Moral Economy • Ralph Barton Perry

... creatures? He suspected that I looked with favorable eyes upon Carwin. Hence arose disquietudes which he struggled in vain to conceal. He loved me, but was hopeless that his love would be compensated. Is it not time, said I, to rectify this error? But by what means is this to be effected? It can only be done by a change of deportment in me; but how must I demean myself for ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne

... ERASER.—The great Lightning Ink Eraser may be used instead of a knife or scraper for erasing in order to rectify a mistake or clean off a blot, without injury to the paper, leaving the paper as clean and good to write upon as it was before the blot or mistake was made, and without injury to the printer's ink upon any printed form or ruling upon any first-class paper. Take ...
— One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed • C. A. Bogardus

... you again,' said the doctor, looking about him a little anxiously, and producing his card-case in a very precipitate manner. 'But, my dear Miss Gwilt, permit me to rectify a slight mistake on your part. Doctor Downward of Pimlico is dead and buried; and you will infinitely oblige me if you will never, on ...
— Armadale • Wilkie Collins

... the Christian faith which have been consecrated by the belief of the church catholic since the ages of miraculous guidance, and which are now venerable by time. Bold and presuming is he who fancies that his intellect can rectify errors of this magnitude and antiquity, and that the church of God has been permitted to wallow on in a most fatal idolatry for centuries, to be extricated by the pretending syllogisms of his one-sided ...
— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper

... printed in this small volume.... And not to detain the reader further from the serious and candid perusal of this book, I shall only add, that I have faithfully transcribed these sermons from the manuscript copy without the smallest alteration of his sentiments. I have endeavoured to rectify a few grammatical errors of the transcribers and the old form of spelling, and altered a few words not now used in our modern sermons, for words of the same meaning. As I have added several sermons of this author upon the kingdom of God, ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning

... there must be some mistake. My son Louis is a man of strict honour; he must have acted on hasty information. To do you entire justice, I shall make it my duty to look over these documents, which are doubtless entirely correct, and will then do the best in my power to rectify this injury so painful and regrettable. A ...
— The False Chevalier - or, The Lifeguard of Marie Antoinette • William Douw Lighthall

... minded the difference between what a man speaks without preparation, and that which he prepares for the press. And, therefore, we cannot sufficiently commend the care which his illustrious friends took to erect a monument so capable of giving him immortal glory. They were not obliged to rectify what they had heard him say; for, in so doing, they had not been faithful historians of his conversations.' BOSWELL. Boswell's quotation from Clarendon (ed. 1826, iv. 242) differs somewhat ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell

... brimstone, foretells that discreditable dealings will lose you many friends. if you fail to rectify the mistakes ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller

... This argument proves that no other habits, besides the virtues and gifts, rectify ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas

... I parted, and for ever, at a corner of crossways in the central city. There I saw the last of one who deemed it as simple a matter to renounce his savings for old age, to rectify an error of justice, as to plant his foot on the pavement; a man whose only burden was the ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... the aspect was the same, All ruined, desolate, forlorn and savage, No hand or foot within the precinct came To rectify or ravage! Here Echo never mocked the human tongue; Some weighty crime that Heaven could not pardon. A secret curse on that old Building ...
— Capitola's Peril - A Sequel to 'The Hidden Hand' • Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth

... re-examine the principles early infused into their minds. They cannot in their riper age conquer by reason those superstitions terrors, or bigoted prejudices, which render their victims miserable, or perhaps criminal. To attempt to rectify any errors in the foundation after an edifice has been constructed is dangerous: the foundation, therefore, should be laid with care. The religious opinions of Sister Frances were strictly united with just rules of morality, strongly enforcing, as ...
— Murad the Unlucky and Other Tales • Maria Edgeworth

... conceited Revelation; but the People of this World convince us, that it may be all Natural, by obtaining it in a Mechanick way, viz. by forming something suitable to the sublime Nature, which working by Art, shall only rectify the more vigorous Particles of the Soul, and work it up to a suitable Elevation. This Engine is wholly applied to the Head, and Works by Injection; the chief Influence being on what we call Fancy, or Imagination, which by the heat of strong ...
— The Consolidator • Daniel Defoe

... volume. In many places the text, as there given, is in a most unsatisfactory state; and in not a few I fear it must be pronounced incurably at fault. A vast deal of study and labour has been spent in trying to rectify the numerous errors; nearly all the editors and commentators, from Rowe downwards, have strained their faculties upon the work: many instances of corruption have indeed yielded to critical ingenuity and perseverance, and it is to be hoped that still others may; but yet there are several ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson

... responsible," Barbara was saying, "I can't begin to imagine. Surely I've done everything I could to simplify matters, to straighten them out, and to give you a chance to rectify your folly. I've effaced myself; I've broken my heart; I've promised Aunt Marion to go in for a job for which I'm not fitted and don't care a rap; and yet ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King

... that fool-head Curly Saunders," he said unguardedly. However, he saw his mistake in an instant and tried to rectify it. "Y' see they're always skylarkin' when they git ...
— The Golden Woman - A Story of the Montana Hills • Ridgwell Cullum

... in his power to pick up information concerning the lay of the land. He even made up a sort of map, based on what he was able to learn, although frankly admitting that it might prove faulty in many places. It was going to be one of his personal tasks to rectify these mistakes, and bring back an accurate ...
— The Outdoor Chums at Cabin Point - or The Golden Cup Mystery • Quincy Allen

... friend is about to place before the House as an amendment to the Defense of the Realm act is calculated to rectify this state of things as far as it is possible, and, in my opinion, it is imperatively necessary. In such a large manufacturing country as our own the enormous output of what we require to place our troops in the field thoroughly equipped and found with ammunition is undoubtedly ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... he began it by observing How reason dictated that men Should rectify the natural swerving, By a reversion, now and then, To the well-heads of knowledge, few And far away, whence rolling grew The life-stream wide whereat we drink, Commingled, as we needs must think, With waters alien to the source; ...
— Browning's England - A Study in English Influences in Browning • Helen Archibald Clarke

... before you return to France." To which Grammont answered, "True, my dear friend; what a memory I have! I quite forgot that I was to marry your sister; but I will instantly accompany you back to London and rectify that forgetfulness." His celebrated Memoirs were written by his brother-in-law, Anthony, generally called Count Hamilton, who followed the fortunes of James the Second, and afterwards entered ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3 • Horace Walpole

... nothing to lighten her partner's unpleasant task. On the contrary, she was so recalcitrant, so inattentive and so awkward, that she often caused confusion, and her partner had the greatest difficulty to rectify her mistakes. Indeed, the polite young officer was pitied by the whole company, and the more so because it was known that he was sacrificing himself to a sense of duty; for he was engaged to a charming young lady who had been prevented from attending ...
— Major Frank • A. L. G. Bosboom-Toussaint

... and the people put their heads together, and I knew they whispered of the loaves and fishes. I went on hastily. 'So I was made aware of my foolishness and of Moosu's wisdom; of my own unfitness and of Moosu's fitness. And because of this, being no longer mad, I make acknowledgment and rectify evil. I did cast unrighteous eyes upon Kluktu, and lo, she was sealed to Moosu. Yet is she mine, for did I not pay to Tummasook the goods of purchase? But I am well unworthy of her, and she shall go from the igloo of her father to the igloo of Moosu. Can the ...
— The Faith of Men • Jack London

... I could not deviate my whole life through; namely, the tendency to turn into an image, into a poem, every thing that delighted or troubled me, or otherwise occupied me, and to come to some certain understanding with myself upon it, that I might both rectify my conceptions of external things, and set my mind at rest about them. The faculty of doing this was necessary to no one more than to me, for my natural disposition whirled me constantly from one extreme to the other. All, therefore, that has been confessed by me, consists of ...
— Autobiography • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

... age, and obtain a civil standing by applying to the courts at Andelys for a judgment, which should enable his baptismal record to be transferred from the registry of the parish to that of the mayor's office; and he obtained permission to rectify the document by inserting the name of du Tillet, under which he was known, and which legally belonged to him through the fact of his exposure and abandonment in that township. Without father, mother, or other guardian than the procureur imperial, ...
— Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau • Honore de Balzac

... to which you, Monsieur Chapron, have to reply by yes or no, these gentlemen should withdraw immediately.... It is not your fault, it is Ardea's, who has allowed that dabbler in spurious dividends to perform his part of intriguer.... But we will rectify all in the right way, which is the French.... And ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... naming the great officers at court, and the like; which powers, it was never denied, had been stretched too far in the beginning of this king's reign, and several things done illegally, which his Majesty had been sensible of, and was willing to rectify; but they having obtained the power by victory, resolved so to secure themselves, as that, whenever they laid down their arms, the king should not be able to do the like again. And thus far they were not to be so much blamed, and we did not on our own part blame them, when ...
— Memoirs of a Cavalier • Daniel Defoe

... she mentioned it since her return. She never loved Archie; she cared no more for him than a bird that has dropped its young out of its nest. Besides, your plan is impossible. Marriage does not condone a sin. The power to rise and rectify the wrong lies in the woman. Lucy has not got it in her, and she never will have it. Part of it is her fault; a large part of it is mine. She has lived this lie all these years, and I have only myself to blame. I have taught her to live it. I began it when I carried her away ...
— The Tides of Barnegat • F. Hopkinson Smith

... of exploration. They were prepared to meet any conditions on those other worlds—no atmosphere, no water, no heat, or even an atmosphere of poisonous gases they could rectify, for their transmutation apparatus would permit them to change those gases, or modify them; they knew well how to supply heat, but they knew too, that that sun would warm some of its planets sufficiently for ...
— The Black Star Passes • John W Campbell

... upon this Nation a day longer than you have an opportunity to give a remedy; and I hope I shall cheerfully join with you in it. This hath been a great grief to many honest hearts and conscientious people; and I hope it is in all your hearts to rectify it." ...
— The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth • Lewis H. Berens

... living critics like Mr. Yeats. No one who cares at all for poetry now could think of regretting an unwritten epic in the language Johnson uses about Dryden's: "it would doubtless have improved our numbers and enlarged our language; and might perhaps have contributed by pleasing instruction to rectify our opinions and purify our manners." It is not that such criticism is false but that it is beside the mark. An epic poem may do all these things, as a statesman may play golf or act as churchwarden: but when he dies it is not his golf or ...
— Dr. Johnson and His Circle • John Bailey

... on my desk in the morning; by way of acknowledgment for this little foreign attention, I used sometimes to walk with a select few during recreation. In the course of conversation it befel once or twice that I made an unpremeditated attempt to rectify some of their singularly distorted notions of principle; especially I expressed my ideas of the evil and baseness of a lie. In an unguarded moment, I chanced to say that, of the two errors; I considered falsehood worse than an occasional lapse in church-attendance. The poor girls were tutored ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... of the statement. "So I'm told, at least; so Walter tells me; and he ought to know; he claims to have been the moving spirit in the affair. When he found out his mistake, of course, he posted off after me to rectify the hideous error, and arrived just in time to effect a dramatic rescue. And then he had to confess. ...
— Nobody • Louis Joseph Vance

... even in their sweetest Pleasures; and imbitter to them the wholesomest Delights. But what remedy hereto can be hop'd for, if rational Instruction and a well order'd Education of Youth, in respect of Vertue and Religion, can only (as has been said) rectify these Evils? For vicious and ignorant Parents are neither capable of this, or generally willing that their Children should be instructed or govern'd any other ways, than as themselves ...
— Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or Christian life • Lady Damaris Masham

... herself, to find out the latest domestic news; to be present in spirit at least if not in body, at family consultations which could not take place in her room; to know exactly how her husband was getting on downstairs with his pictures; to rectify in time any omission of which Mr. Blyth or Madonna might be guilty in making the dinner arrangements, or in sending orders to tradespeople; to keep the servants attentive to their work, and to indulge or control them, as the occasion might require. Neither by look nor manner did she betray any ...
— Hide and Seek • Wilkie Collins

... how to force a thing into their head unless it be all to their advantage."[394] Trevisa, about the same time, translating into English the chronicle of Ralph Higden, reaches the passage where it is said that all the country people endeavour to learn French, and inserts a note to rectify the statement. This manner, he writes, is since the great pestilence (1349) "sumdel i-chaunged," and to-day, in the year 1385, "in alle the gramere scoles of Engelond, children leveth Frensche and ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand

... a maze as e'er men trod; And there is in this business more than Nature Was ever conduct of:[463-48] some oracle Must rectify ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 • Charles H. Sylvester

... been waiting to secure your services in the administration of the state, and wishes to know what you consider is the first thing to be done." "It is first of all necessary," replied Confucius, "to rectify names." "Indeed," said Tzse-loo, "you are wide of the mark. Why need there be such rectification?" "How uncultivated you are, Yew," answered Confucius; "a superior man shows a cautious reserve in regard to what he does not know. If names be not correct, language is not ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1 • Various

... complications; there was our dear les Lupeaulx, for instance, whose position was so deeply compromised. And Desroches stood in need of influence; for when he began, he was anything but well looked on at the court, and he who took so much trouble to rectify the errors of his clients was often in trouble himself. See now, Bixiou, to go back to the subject—How came Desroches ...
— The Firm of Nucingen • Honore de Balzac

... would not like it, if I told you of a mistake. But I supposed you would rectify it, and I should have done you a kindness, even against ...
— Autumn Leaves - Original Pieces in Prose and Verse • Various

... "after to-night's imbroglio I have nothing to observe concerning the possibility of anything; but if this marriage prove a legal one, I am most indissuadably resolved to rectify matters without delay ...
— Gallantry - Dizain des Fetes Galantes • James Branch Cabell

... their offence can weigh down by the dram] This which was in the former editions can scarcely be right, and yet I know not whether my reading will be thought to rectify it. I take the meaning to be, We will give thee a recompence that our offences cannot outweigh, heaps of wealth down by the dram, or delivered according to the exactest measure. A little disorder may perhaps have happened ...
— Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies • Samuel Johnson

... mandarins would be summoned, of which he himself was a member, and that all that was demanded would be amply and speedily granted. And with regard to the Commodore's complaint of the custom-house of Macao, he undertook to rectify that immediately by his own authority; for, desiring a list to be given him of the quantity of provision necessary for the expense of the ship for a day, he wrote a permit under it, and delivered it to one of his attendants, directing him to see that quantity sent ...
— Anson's Voyage Round the World - The Text Reduced • Richard Walter

... are many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify or explain, with due diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my endeavours will ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume V: Miscellaneous Pieces • Samuel Johnson

... labours of Picard, continued by La Hire and Cassini, were completed at the commencement of the following century. The astronomical observations, rendered possible by the calculation of the satellites of Jupiter, enabled us to rectify our maps. If this rectification had been already effected with regard to certain places, it became indispensable when the number of points of which the astronomical position had been observed, had been considerably increased; and this was to be the ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part I. The Exploration of the World • Jules Verne

... The old stair creaks, and Serafino's head appears above the railing. We look up, aroused from our enchantment. The afternoon lights are slanting across the Campagna. It is time to go. I have overpaid the waiter. He honestly offers to rectify it. Isabel laughs, seeing that I am oblivious of such worldly things. That breaks the spell. And we drive back ...
— Children of the Market Place • Edgar Lee Masters

... a moment, but kept dancing around, rubbing his hands and smiling as if he had sold a suit of clothes without coming down a cent. When, to everybody's great surprise, the sucker said, "Gentlemen, I have made a mistake in my hand; can't I take my money down?" The Jew said: "Oh, we don't rectify no mistakes in poker." The sucker looked up at him and said: "What in the h—l have you got to do with this game?" The Jew said: "I thought you was bluffin'." The sucker then said: "Hold on, gentlemen, we have not drawn yet. I thought I had a king full on sevens." He then threw down the seven ...
— Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi • George H. Devol

... it when the tax was laid on. As land and those particular securities would thenceforth yield a smaller net income, relatively to the general interest of capital and to the profits of trade, the balance would rectify itself by a permanent depreciation of those kinds of property. Future buyers would acquire land and securities at a reduction of price, equivalent to the peculiar tax, which tax they would, therefore, escape from paying; while the original possessors ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • John Stuart Mill

... was thoughtlessly neglected at the time, because there were so many other things to be attended to, and—and I could not bear to have it taken off to rectify the oversight, after it was once put upon my hand," Virgie confessed, growing white ...
— Virgie's Inheritance • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... possibly might cause his greater neglect of Whitelocke, who took little notice of it. He took upon him to be fully instructed in the affairs of England, and of the laws and government there; wherein Whitelocke presumed to rectify some of ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke

... are followed, you will obtain sweet, tender and wholesome bread. If by any mistake the dough becomes sour before you are ready to bake it, you can rectify it by adding a little dry super-carbonate of soda, molding the dough a long time to distribute the soda equally throughout the mass. All bread is better, if naturally sweet, without the soda; but sour bread you should never eat, if ...
— The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) - The Whole Comprising A Comprehensive Cyclopedia Of Information For - The Home • Mrs. F.L. Gillette

... produced a sensation, and we were happy to see the fellows whisper together, as though they had made a mistake, and were willing to rectify it. ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... Persians starting on a journey of any length to go a short distance only for the first stage. The object of this is probably to find out by actual experience on the road whether anything has been forgotten or overlooked, before they get too far away to return and rectify the mistake. Semi-civilized peoples are wedded very strongly to the customs in vogue among them, and the European traveller finds himself compelled, more or less, to submit to them. My intention is to overtake the fourgon the following day ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II. - From Teheran To Yokohama • Thomas Stevens

... failed to appreciate the true conditions. They began to realize that it had been a mistake to keep such men as Percival in power; behind the hand they went about convincing each other that it was high time to rectify the original error. These, in addition to the ignorant, easily persuaded rabble from the steerage,—who, by the way, could give ample testimony as to Percival's ability to "bluff,"—provided Crust with a decidedly formidable following. ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon

... There is the Jewish and also the Mahommedan Calendar, but I see nothing about the Greek Kalends. I am not quite sure that the Bulgarians will be quite satisfied, and I should say, that the Aborigines of Central Africa will have a distinct grievance, which M. FREDERIC MAYER will rectify after an interview with Mr. STANLEY. It's a wonderful production, and as it gives postal rates and cab-fares in ever so many languages, it will be of great practical value to the traveller. But no list of cab-fares is perfect without a model row with the driver in eight languages, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari Volume 98, January 4, 1890 • Various

... from the standpoint of that eccentric posture. For they seem to him to see everything topsy-turvy. Whether it be that their antipodal situation has affected their brains, or whether it is the mind of the observer himself that has hitherto been wrong in undertaking to rectify the inverted pictures presented by his retina, the result, at all events, is undeniable. The world stands reversed, and, taking for granted his own uprightness, the stranger unhesitatingly imputes to them an obliquity of vision, a state of mind ...
— The Soul of the Far East • Percival Lowell

... are not altogether satisfactory. It isn't a 'type' that I am looking for, but a definite likeness of 'Molly' herself. Kindly rectify the mistake without further delay! ...
— Molly Make-Believe • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

... his consent!"—she had turned away from the searching eyes, but she faced them again to rectify: "I see you ...
— The Outcry • Henry James

... result was somewhat bizarre. Jock Summers gave a bell hung in a small gilded dome, and this was fixed on the roof right in the centre of the building, mainly for picturesque effect; but as there was no rope attached and no means of reaching the bell—and it never occurred to anybody to rectify the deficiency—Jock's gift remained to the end merely an ornamental adjunct. So also with Sam Brierly's Gothic portico. Sam expended much time and ingenuity in constructing the portico, and it was built on to the street end of the schoolhouse, although there was no door there, the ...
— The Gold-Stealers - A Story of Waddy • Edward Dyson

... her volume, Mrs. Howe enters a spirited and telling protest against a self-constituted censorship, which would insist on a traveller's squaring his impressions with some foregone theory of right and wrong, instead of thankfully allowing facts to rectify his theory. A traveller is bound to tell us what he saw, not what he expected or wished to see; and it is only by comparing the different views of many independent observers that we who tarry at home can arrive at any approximate notion of absolute fact. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... hands resting on her lap, as shown in the illustration, or she may fold her arms in front of her. Whatever may be the pace, if the pupil begins to lose her balance, to be frightened, to sit awkwardly, or to become tired, the driver should at once halt the horse and should try to rectify matters as far ...
— The Horsewoman - A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. • Alice M. Hayes

... perhaps more so than our winters. This puts the scales even, if, it do not incline the balance in our favor. The summer annoyances of insects, &c., are more than a counterbalance for our ice and snow, especially when we can rectify their influences by a ...
— Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers • Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

... have faded in the light of our day. We found these conventions unreal and put them by. This was no reflection on our fathers; what they fought for truly is our heritage, and we pay them a tribute in offering it in turn our loyalty inspired by their devotion. But their errors we must rectify; what they left undone we must take up and fulfil. That is the task of every generation, to take up the uncompleted work of the former one, and hand on to their successors an achievement and a heritage. Youth recognises this ...
— Principles of Freedom • Terence J. MacSwiney

... the illusions of her humble existence? Are we to break down the hedge-flowers that perfume our paths? Things are oftenest nothing in themselves; the thoughts we attach to them alone give them value. To rectify innocent mistakes, in order to recover some useless reality, is to be like those learned men who will see nothing in a plant but the chemical elements of which ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... most maladroit arrangement of Capt. Drummond's!" said the lady. "What can we do to rectify it? A most stupid place ...
— Melbourne House, Volume 1 • Susan Warner

... his helmet. The lips with which he appealed to Heaven to adjudge victory to the just quarrel grew white as they uttered the impious mockery. As he turned to remount his horse, the Grand Master approached him closer, as if to rectify something about the sitting of his gorget, and whispered, "Coward and fool! recall thy senses, and do me this battle bravely, else, by Heaven, shouldst thou escape him, thou ...
— The Talisman • Sir Walter Scott

... gallery at grandmamma's house at Jallanges. He is as touchy, too, when crossed, as the old dancing master used to be. I wish you had heard him talk to the Comte de Bretigny, the ex-minister, one of the grandees of the Academie, who came in, while I was waiting, to rectify a mistake about the number of his tallies. I must tell you that the tally attesting attendance is worth five shillings, the old crown-piece. There are forty Academicians, which makes two hundred shillings per meeting, to be divided among those present; so, you see, the ...
— The Immortal - Or, One Of The "Forty." (L'immortel) - 1877 • Alphonse Daudet

... History, and gives also seven questions propounded to him by the commissioners, with his replies; in which he clearly states the cause of the disasters in the colonies, and proposes wise and statesman-like remedies. He insists upon industry and good conduct: "to rectify a commonwealth with debauched people is impossible, and no wise man would throw himself into such society, that intends honestly, and knows what he understands, for there is no country to pillage, as the Romans found; all you expect from thence ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... skids to help the ascending log keep straight and true to its bed on the pile. His assistant's end caught on a sliver, ground for a second, and slipped back. Thus the log ran slanting across the skids instead of perpendicular to them. To rectify the fault, Thorpe dug his cant-hook into the timber and threw his weight on the stock. He hoped in this manner to check correspondingly the ascent of his end. In other words, he took the place, on his side, of the preventing sliver, so equalizing the pressure and forcing ...
— The Blazed Trail • Stewart Edward White

... amazed at the strangeness of our dreams, when we remember, that, when awake, our senses are on the alert, and respectively rectify each other. When a man sleeps, however, every sensation is left to his ...
— The Physiology of Taste • Brillat Savarin

... extensive imagination carries its expectation infinitely beyond reality, in the highest of our sublunary enjoyments? A woman adorned with such an imagination sees no defect in a favoured object, (the less, if she be not conscious of any wilful fault in herself,) till it is too late to rectify the mistakes occasioned ...
— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... letter, my dear count, but you know how long all letters must be which are intended to refute opinions and to rectify judgments. M. de Lamartine has the excellent habit of listening to your advice, and that is why I have had at heart to let you know the truth about Byron. The present work will adduce the proofs of the appreciations contained ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... of recollection, and wishing to rectify it, ran to fetch the bag; but it was too heavy for him to drag along. He then ran to his master, and by crying, barking, and howling, tried to remind him of ...
— Minnie's Pet Dog • Madeline Leslie

... Jefferson, under the command of Piomingo, or the "Mountain Leader." On their march they heard of the fatal battle, and saw one of the enemy; who mistaking Piomingo's party for some of his own comrades, made up to them. He discovered the mistake when it was too late to rectify it. Piomingo accosted him in harsh tones, saying—"Rascal, you have been killing the whites," and immediately ordered two of his warriors to expand his arms, and a third to shoot him. This was done and his ...
— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... enterprise of groups of men. It is great, also, very great, in its moral force. Nowhere else in the world have noble men and women exhibited in more striking forms the beauty and the energy of sympathy and helpfulness and counsel in their efforts to rectify wrong, alleviate suffering, and set the weak in the way of strength and hope. We have built up, moreover, a great system of government, which has stood through a long age as in many respects a model for those who seek to set liberty upon ...
— U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses • Various

... all her children; this expedient being necessary to overcome a ban which had been pronounced against Nuit, according to which she could not give birth to children on any day of the year. But, of course, the five additional days do not suffice fully to rectify the calendar. There remains the additional quarter of a day to be accounted for. This, of course, amounts to a full day every fourth year. We shall see that later Alexandrian science hit upon the expedient of adding a day to every fourth ...
— A History of Science, Volume 1(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams

... circulation could not fail to awaken a deeper and more kindly interest in the condition of the red man, and greatly aid in leading the public mind to a fuller appreciation of the responsibility which rests upon us as a people to rectify, as far as possible, past abuses, and in our future relations to the native owners of the soil to "deal justly ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... most important announcement; namely, that King Edward the Confessor, so called, was dead, and that Harold, as the English write it, his eldest brother would give him, Tosti, no sufficient share in the kingship. Which state of matters, if Svein would go ahead with him to rectify it, would be greatly to the advantage of Svein. Svein, taught by many beatings, was too wise for this proposal; refused Tosti, who indignantly stepped over into Norway, and proposed it to King Harald there. Svein really had acquired considerable teaching, I should guess, from his much beating ...
— Early Kings of Norway • Thomas Carlyle

... answer to my first application was a definite refusal, and I blamed myself for not having presented the case more clearly to your distinguished notice. Will you permit me to rectify that fault now, and to state briefly why I feel assured that my present claim is not ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 1 • Various

... all the accounts of the movements of Greene and Col. Lee, into South Carolina, are confused, from a want of information of the local situation of the country, and the clashing of the names of places; the present note has been subjoined to rectify misconceptions. From Ensign Johnson Baker's account we have seen Lee at the Long bluff, since called Greenville, now Society-hill. At that time, the marshes of Black creek, and the bogs of Black river, were impassable (except ...
— A Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion • William Dobein James

... each other's thinking, which takes away all hesitation and gives them a precocious air of maturity. If this decorative lad engages in some profession like medicine or engineering there is hope for him, even as others of his age rectify their perspective by contact with crude facts—groceries and calicoes and carburettors and so forth. Otherwise, his doom is sealed. He remains a doctrinaire. This country ...
— Alone • Norman Douglas

... withdrawn a portion of our force today," continued the general, "in order to rectify our line. Our army had advanced too far. Tomorrow we resume our ...
— The Forest of Swords - A Story of Paris and the Marne • Joseph A. Altsheler

... now than after long-drawn-out bickerings and bitterness. If we are so diametrically opposed where we thought we stood together we have made a mistake that no amount of adjusting, nothing but separate roads, will rectify. Myself I refuse to believe that we have made such a mistake. I don't think that honestly and deliberately you prefer an exotic, useless, purposeless, parasitic existence to the normal, wholesome life ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... traveler Victoria's brother. He saw his mistake as he passed out, but did not deem it necessary to rectify it. ...
— Five Thousand Dollars Reward • Frank Pinkerton

... viewpoint, the chronic condition is the latent, constitutional disease encumbrance, whereas acute disease represents Nature's efforts to rectify abnormal conditions, to overcome and eliminate hereditary or acquired morbid taints and systemic poisons and to ...
— Nature Cure • Henry Lindlahr

... any means, he might succeed In saving souls, of whatsoever creed. His shop-mates saw the difference with surprise, And at his cost indulged in foul surmise. He heeded not, but placed in God his trust— To his employer still continued just— And strove with all his might to rectify Each thing improper which he chanced to spy; That his old master might have no complaint Against his servant for thus turning Saint. He plied his trade from better motives now, As God with wisdom did his mind endow, And to his just commands led him to bow. By such a course ...
— The Emigrant Mechanic and Other Tales In Verse - Together With Numerous Songs Upon Canadian Subjects • Thomas Cowherd

... services did not in the first instance receive the full recognition that might have been expected from the new Republic. He alone of all the superior officers of the Revolution received no promotion other than that given wholesale by Congress, and was forced to apply personally to Washington to rectify the omission. In language not too cordial, Washington presented his request to Congress, which conferred upon Kosciuszko the rank of brigadier-general with the acknowledgment of its "high sense of his long, faithful and meritorious services." The recently ...
— Kosciuszko - A Biography • Monica Mary Gardner

... about you since your convalescence? Nay, with your excellent husband himself, who has other irritating habits besides that of not wiping his shoes? These fellow-mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are: you can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor rectify their dispositions; and it is these people—amongst whom your life is passed—that it is needful you should tolerate, pity, and love: it is these more or less ugly, stupid, inconsistent people whose movements of goodness you should be able to admire—for whom you should ...
— Adam Bede • George Eliot

... resolutions were alike inspired with one purpose: to correct what he considered an error and a wrong; to rectify a misrepresentation which he could not, in his very nature, permit to go uncontradicted. It gratified his offended moral sense to protest against the false pretenses which he saw so clearly, and it pleased his fancy as a lawyer to bring a truth to light which somebody, as ...
— Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 • John G. Nicolay and John Hay

... press on the sides of the passages. They become retarded in their progress as compared with the more rapidly advancing head, and may bruise or even lacerate the walls of the vagina. It would seem easy to rectify this by extending the legs, but the already tense and overstretched muscles operate against extension in the present position, and it is not easy to rotate the limbs so as to apply the shoulder flat against the side of the chest. Under these circumstances a repeller (Pl. XX, fig. 7) may ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... and selfish. It must be this sort of blindness which had led her so far in so fearful a delusion. And if the whole condition of her mind had been low and selfish, while her conscience had given her no hint of anything being amiss, where was she to begin to rectify her being? She ...
— Deerbrook • Harriet Martineau

... "The Life of Savage," make up a prettyish system of morality and the Belles Lettres, which Mr. Mylne, a Schoolmaster, has properly brought together, and calls the collection by the denomination above mentioned. The Doctor had no sooner discovered his error than he despatched man and horse to rectify the mistake, and with a pretty kind of ingenuous modesty in his note seemeth to deny any knowledge of the Well-bred Scholar; false modesty surely and a blush misplaced; for, what more pleasing than the consideration of professional austerity ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... fragments of its earlier forms, and its vocabulary is strongly Romanised, two out of the six words here given being Latin of the Empire. Rightly understood, this enhances the value of modern Celtic instead of depreciating it, because it serves to rectify it. To me it is a wonder that Welsh should have retained so much of its integrity under the iron pressure of four hundred years of Roman dominion. Modern Welsh tenacity and cohesive power under English pressure is nothing compared with what ...
— Celtic Literature • Matthew Arnold

... see yere a lot!' says the avaricious gent, shakin' with delight, an' lookin' at them three crowned heads he holds; 'don't howl all night about a wrong what's so easy to rectify. We removes the limits, an' you can spread your pinions an' soar to any altitoode ...
— Wolfville Days • Alfred Henry Lewis

... If destructiveness be thought injurious when related of Jesus, what shall we say to the wanton destruction of the herd of swine which Jesus filled with devils, and sent racing into the sea? (Matt. viii. 28-34.) The miracle the child works to rectify a mistake of his father's in his carpenter's business, taking hold of some wood which has been cut too short and lengthening it, is certainly not more silly than the miracle worked by the man when money is short, and he (Matt. ...
— The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II. - Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History • Annie Besant

... statement was too clear for Sinclair to deny it. He reviewed his situation with the swift calm of an old gambler. He had tried his desperate coup and had failed. There was nothing to do but accept the failure, or else make a still more desperate effort to rectify his position, risking everything on a ...
— The Rangeland Avenger • Max Brand



Words linked to "Rectify" :   remediate, find out, distill, rectification, moralise, regenerate, commute, remedy, make pure, reverse, right, ascertain, purify, reclaim, change by reversal, moralize, refine, find, change, alter



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