Word Finder - reforming

definition

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

example

1909, H. G. Wells, The History of Mr. Polly Chapter 9

definition

To return to a good state; to amend or correct one's own character or habits

example

It is hoped that many criminals, upon being freed, will eventually reform.

definition

To form again or in a new configuration.

example

The regiment reformed after surviving the first attack.

definition

Reformation

definition

A catalytic process, whereby short-chain molecules are combined to make larger ones; used in the petrochemical industry.

She forced me to experience all the pain I caused in my life, in the hopes of reforming me.

The diet of 1839 refused to proceed to business till the political prisoners had been released, and, while in the Lower Chamber the reforming majority was larger than ever, a Liberal party was now also formed in the Upper House under the brilliant leadership of Count Louis Batthyany and Baron Joseph EdtvOs.

The reforming efforts of the grand vizier Bairakdar, to whom he had owed his life and his accession, broke on the opposition of the janissaries; and Mahmud had to wait for more favourable times.

He relied more than ever on the support of the popular party, which then obtained the reforming Ordonnance Cabochienne (so called from Simon Caboche, a prominent member of the gild of the butchers).

But in Lent his celebrated sermons upon Amos were delivered in the duomo, and again he urged the necessity of reforming the church, striving by ingenious arguments to reconcile rebellion against Alexander with unalterable fidelity to the Holy See.

Frederick William's accession to the throne (August 17, 1786) was, indeed, followed by a series of measures for lightening the burdens of the people, reforming the oppressive French system of tax-collecting introduced by Frederick, and encouraging trade by the diminution of customs dues and the making of roads and canals.

Though it was an attempt to bring into line with the reforming party both those who still inclined to the old faith and the anabaptist section, its publication provoked a good deal of controversy, especially on its statements concerning the Eucharist, and the people of Strassburg even reproached those of Basel with celebrating a Christless supper.

Ministers at home have of ten appeared to be inclined to the policy of pleasing by avoiding the reforming of what might be left as it was found.

He displayed such radical and reforming inclinations that he laid the foundations of his popularity among the lower and middle classes, which lasted more than a quarter of a century, during which time the Progressists, Democrats and advanced Liberals ever looked to him as a leader and adviser.

He was educated at Toul, where he successively became canon and (1026) bishop; in the latter capacity he rendered important political services to his relative Conrad II., and afterwards to Henry III., and at the same time he became widely known as an earnest and reforming ecclesiastic by the zeal he showed in spreading the rule of the order of Cluny.

I have aimed at establishing principally the historical position of the various questions, and secondarily the necessity for reforming more or less the traditional concepts."

Gustavus at once took the young priest by the hand, appointed him, at twenty-five, one of his chaplains; made him a canon before he was thirty and a bishop at thirty-two, and finally placed him at the head of the newly appointed commission for reforming the ecclesiastical administration of the country.

During his visit to Egypt he had an interview with Mehemet Ali, of whose character as a reforming monarch he did not bring away a very favourable impression.

About the same time he published a pamphlet advocating the reform of the Prayer Book, while a tract issued on the 15th of July, Sundry reasons against the new intended Bill for governing and reforming Corporations, was declared illegal, false, scandalous and seditious; Prynne being censured, and only escaping punishment by submission.

At Newark from 1875 he gave himself entirely to literary work, and exercised a strong influence as leader of the radical and reforming Jewish party.

And so in the period of the reforming councils of Constance and Basel the state of the religious orders was seriously taken in hand, and in response to the public demand for reforming the Church '4,"in head and members," reform movements were set on foot, as among others, so among the Benedictines of various parts of Europe.

To the ordinary men it seemed to be a reforming agency, insisting on a high moral standard, and upholding the words of Scripture against the traditions of an overgrown and worldly church.

The teachers of these new opinions were men of high character and holy lives, who in spite of persecution wandered from place to place, and made many converts from those who were dissatisfied at the want of clerical discipline which followed upon the struggle for temporal supremacy into which the reforming projects of Gregory VII.

Thus a reforming movement became heresy through disobedience to authority, and after being condemned embarked on a course of polemical investigation how to justify its own position.

Nor did the Turkish Moslem population escape the reforming purpose of the Committee.

He had associated much with foreigners, and was thoroughly persuaded of the necessity of reforming his state.

It was an attempt to reform the administration without first reforming the State on equivalent lines.

For Godoy the king had an unaffected liking, and the lifelong favour he showed him is almost pathetic. When terrified by the French Revolution he turned to the Inquisition to help him against the party which would have carried the reforming policy of Charles III.

The energy of a succession of distinguished abbots and the disciples whom they inspired succeeded in bringing about the victory of the reforming ideas in the French monasteries; once more the rule of St Benedict controlled the life of the monks.

Finally he was bent upon reforming the Polish constitution by substituting the decision of all matters by a plurality of votes for a unanimity impossible to count upon.

Every attempt to improve matters, by reforming the impossible constitution, stranded on the opposition of the gentry.

But a reforming monarch was inconceivable unless he possessed the confidence of the nation, and such confidence, Wladislaus naturally argued, could only be won by striking and undeniable public services.

Since the absorption of the aborigines in Israel Canaanite ideas had exercised great influence over the sanctuaries - so much so that the reforming prophets of the 8th century regarded the national religion as having become wholly heathenish; and this influence the ordinary prophets, whom a man like Micah regards as mere diviners, had certainly not escaped.

Boniface, though a man of violent temper and too often absent from his see, showed some sympathy with the reforming party in the English church.

He succeeded to the throne on the 16th of November 1797 and at once gave earnest of his good intentions by cutting down the expenses of the royal establishment, dismissing his father's ministers, and reforming the most oppressive abuses of the late reign.

She seconded the reforming efforts of Stein and the work of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in reorganizing the army, by which the resurrection of Prussia became a possibility.

The transcriber was in all probability a certain Murdoch Nisbet, who also showed his reforming tendencies by adding to it a rendering of Luther's Prologue to the New Testament.4 2 See Foxe, Acts and Monuments, iv.

As the desire to dominate primaries was found to lead to many abuses, both in the way of manipulating the lists of party voters and in the unfair management of the primary meetings themselves, a movement was started for reforming the system, which, beginning soon after 1890, gathered so much support that now in the large majority of the states laws have been enacted for regulating the proceedings at primary nomination meetings.

He was entrusted with ruling powers in 1894, and in all respects continued the reforming policy of the council, while paying personal attention to every department, being a keen soldier, an energetic administrator, and fully alive to the responsibilities attaching to his position.

In raising More to that eminent position, the king had not merely considered his professional distinction but had counted upon his avowed liberal and reforming tendencies.

When war was declared on the schismatic prelates, the reforming popes supported the canons, and, unconsciously or not, helped them to form themselves into privileged bodies living their own lives and affecting to recognize the court of Rome as their only superior authority.

Her title to be considered a great reforming ruler is by no means equally clear.

But at least she did not enter into a solemn engagement to defend the Poles who were engaged in reforming their constitution, and then throw them over in order to share in the plunder of their country.

The following year was chiefly spent in reforming the government of the continental provinces.

Archbishop Christopher of BrunswickWolfenbuttel (1487-1558), a brutal libertine, hated for his lusts and avarice, looked on the reforming movement as a revolt against himself.

But an effective reforming monarchy must stand upon a sound financial basis; and the usual revenues of the crown, always inadequate, were so diminished that they did not cover half the daily expenses of government.

Here as elsewhere in his dominions his intentions were excellent, but his reforming zeal outran discretion, and his hasty and self-opinionated interferences with treaty rights and traditional privileges ended in provoking opposition and disaster.

It is difficult, indeed, to blame the burghers for resisting the dubious reforming efforts of Hermann of Wied, archbishop from 1515 to 1546, inspired mainly by secular ambitions; but the expulsion of the Jews in 1414, and still more the exclusion, under Jesuit influence, of Protestants from the right to acquire citizenship, and from the magistracy, dealt severe blows at the prosperity of the place.

Under these popes a new era began for the church, anc - in thus reforming the Papacy Henry III.

Thus Germany lost the opportunity of reforming the Church from within, and the upheaval of the 16th century was rendered inevitable.

After Maximilian had taken the novel step of assuming the title of Roman emperor at Trent in 1508 the last of the reforming diets met at Cologne in 1512.

Instigated by George of Saxony the Romanist princes formed a defensive league at Dessau in 1525; the reforming princes took a similar step at Gotha in 1526.

This decree was strongly resented by the reforming princes and cities.

So striking an object lesson was not lost on the Prussian regent, and he entered on a vigorous policy of reforming and strengthen ing the army, General von Roon being appointed minister of war for this purpose.

The result of these and other laws was an improvement in financial conditions, which enabled the government at last to take in hand the long-delayed task of reforming the currency.