%reform%

a. Incapable of being reformed; incorrigible. Joseph Cook. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To reform wrongly or imperfectly. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ L. praeformare. See Pre-, and Form. ] To form beforehand, or for special ends. “Their natures and preformed faculties. ” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Biol.) An old theory of the preëxistence of germs. Cf. Emboîtement. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A formative letter at the beginning of a word. M. Stuart. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ F. réformer, L. reformare; pref. re- re- + formare to form, from forma form. See Form. ] To put into a new and improved form or condition; to restore to a former good state, or bring from bad to good; to change from worse to better; to amend; to correct; as, to reform a profligate man; to reform corrupt manners or morals. [ 1913 Webster ]

The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To amend; correct; emend; rectify; mend; repair; better; improve; restore; reclaim. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To return to a good state; to amend or correct one's own character or habits; as, a man of settled habits of vice will seldom reform. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. réforme. ] Amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved; reformation; as, reform of elections; reform of government. [ 1913 Webster ]

Civil service reform. See under Civil. --
Reform acts (Eng. Politics), acts of Parliament passed in 1832, 1867, 1884, 1885, extending and equalizing popular representation in Parliament. --
Reform school, a school established by a state or city government, for the confinement, instruction, and reformation of juvenile offenders, and of young persons of idle, vicious, and vagrant habits. [ U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Reformation; amendment; rectification; correction. See Reformation. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being reformed. Foxe. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A reformado. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Sp., fr. reformar, L. reformare. SEe Reform, v. t. ] 1. A monk of a reformed order. [ Obs. ] Weever. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An officer who, in disgrace, is deprived of his command, but retains his rank, and sometimes his pay. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To affect reformation; to pretend to correctness. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. réformation, L. reformatio. ] 1. The act of reforming, or the state of being reformed; change from worse to better; correction or amendment of life, manners, or of anything vicious or corrupt; as, the reformation of manners; reformation of the age; reformation of abuses. [ 1913 Webster ]

Satire lashes vice into reformation. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Specifically (Eccl. Hist.), the important religious movement commenced by Luther early in the sixteenth century, which resulted in the formation of the various Protestant churches. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Reform; amendment; correction; rectification. -- Reformation, Reform. Reformation is a more thorough and comprehensive change than reform. It is applied to subjects that are more important, and results in changes which are more lasting. A reformation involves, and is followed by, many particular reforms. “The pagan converts mention this great reformation of those who had been the greatest sinners, with that sudden and surprising change which the Christian religion made in the lives of the most profligate.” Addison. “A variety of schemes, founded in visionary and impracticable ideas of reform, were suddenly produced.” Pitt. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Forming again; having the quality of renewing form; reformatory. Good. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. -ries An institution for promoting the reformation of offenders. [ 1913 Webster ]

Magistrates may send juvenile offenders to reformatories instead of to prisons. Eng. Cyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Tending to produce reformation; reformative. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Corrected; amended; restored to purity or excellence; said, specifically, of the whole body of Protestant churches originating in the Reformation. Also, in a more restricted sense, of those who separated from Luther on the doctrine of consubstantiation, etc., and carried the Reformation, as they claimed, to a higher point. The Protestant churches founded by them in Switzerland, France, Holland, and part of Germany, were called the Reformed churches. [ 1913 Webster ]

The town was one of the strongholds of the Reformed faith. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Amended in character and life; as, a reformed gambler or drunkard. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mil.) Retained in service on half or full pay after the disbandment of the company or troop; -- said of an officer. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who effects a reformation or amendment; one who labors for, or urges, reform; as, a reformer of manners, or of abuses. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Eccl.Hist.) One of those who commenced the reformation of religion in the sixteenth century, as Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. réformiste. ] A reformer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In the manner of a reform; for the purpose of reform. [ Obs. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Want of reformation; state of being unreformed. [ Obs. ] Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]