noun
definition
The change of something that is defective, broken, inefficient or otherwise negative, in order to correct or improve it
example
A major reform is needed to improve the efficiency in the factory.
verb
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.
Examples of reforms in a Sentence
His first reforms were connected with the army.
The reforms became more or less a dead letter.
The comprehensiveness of his legal and judicial reforms is very striking.
C. Farini was issued demanding the reforms advocated by the powers memorandum of 1831.
He made various reforms which were badly wanted in army administration, but on the whole the experiment of a civilian War Lord was not a complete success, and in April 1909 Senator Casana retired and was succeeded by General Spingardi, an appointment which received general approval.
The large Adminis- territorial units of administration created by Peter the trative Great were broken up into so-called " governments " reforms. (gubernii) and further subdivided into districts (uyezdy), and each government was confided to the care of a governor and a vice-governor assisted by a council.
Partly from disappointment and nervous exhaustion, and partly from a conviction that the country required rest in order to judge the practical results of the reforms already accomplished, the tsar refrained from further initiating new legislation, and the government gave it to be understood that the epoch of the great reforms was closed.
On the 19th of March he laid before the House his programme of reforms, which included the emancipation of the peasants from the control of the communes and the handing over to them of the crown lands and imperial estates.
Stolypin indeed defended the coup d'etat in the Duma on the ground that the autocrat had merely altered what the autocrat had originally granted; but, while laying stress on the necessity for restoring order in the body politic, he announced a long programme of reforms, including agrarian measures, reform of local government and its extension in the frontier provinces, and state insurance of workmen.
The most far-reaching of these reforms, carried in the first session of the third Duma, was the partial abolition of the communal and family ownership of land, which involved the establishment of a class of true peasant-proprietors.
Guchkov attacked the maladministration in the navy, pointing out that no reforms were possible so long as grand-dukes were at the head of its departments.
He had entered the war office in 1870, and in 1880 became general secretary, in which capacity he introduced many useful reforms in the army.
He wished the institutions of the present to approximate more closely to those of the past, and devised for the new French constitution a body of reforms which reflected the opinions he had formed upon the democracy at Rome and in ancient France.
He immediately set about introducing certain urgent reforms, suppressed all subsidies to the press, and declared his intention of governing according to law and justice.
It is a new source which is here suddenly introduced, belonging apparently to a history of the Temple; it throws no light upon the relations between Judah with its priests and Israel with its prophets, the circumstances of the regency under the priest Jehoiada are ignored, and the Temple reforms occupy the first place in the compiler's interest.
The assumption that the decay of Assyria awoke the national feeling of independence is perhaps justified by those events which made the greatest impression upon the compiler, and an account is given of Josiah's religious reforms, based upon a source apparently identical with that which described the work of Jehoash.
But the details and success of the reforms, when viewed in the light of the testimony of contemporary prophets, are uncertain.
But if Josiah carried out the reforms ascribed to him they were of no lasting effect.
Whatever reforms Josiah actually accomplished, the restoration afforded the opportunity of bringing the Deuteronomic teaching into action; though it is more probable that Deuteronomy itself in the main is not much earlier than the second half of the 6th century B.C.'
It is the work of rebuilding and reorganization, of social and of religious reforms, which we encounter in the last pages of biblical history, and in the records of Ezra and Nehemiah we stand in Jerusalem in the very centre of epoch-making events.
The reforms of Nehemiah were directed towards the establishment of a religious community at Jerusalem, in which the rigour of the law should be observed.
Mr Basil Thomson (who after Baker's deportation had carried out reforms which the natives, when left alone, were incapable of maintaining) was sent in 1900 to conclude the treaty by which the king placed his kingdom under British protection.
After a period of great distress and cruel oppression, in 1866, on the demand for reforms being again refused, a general insurrection took place, which was only put down by great exertions on the part of the Porte.
The Christian leaders prepared a moderate scheme of reforms, based on the Halepa Pact, which, with a few exceptions, were approved by the powers and eventually sanctioned by the sultan.
It soon became evident, however, that the Porte was endeavouring to obstruct the execution of the new reforms. Several months passed without any step being taken towards this realization; difficulties were raised with regard to the composition of the international commissions charged with the reorganization of the gendarmery and judicial system; intrigues were set on foot against the Christian governorgeneral; and the presence of a special imperial commissioner, who had no place under the constitution, proved so injurious to the restoration of tranquillity that the powers demanded his immediate recall.
These measures were followed by the presentation of collective notes to the Greek and Turkish governments (2nd March), announcing the decision of the powers that (1) Crete could in no case in present circumstances be annexed to Greece; (2) in view of the delays caused by Turkey in the application of the reforms Crete should now, be endowed with an effective autonomous administration, intended to secure to it a separate government, under the suzerainty of the sultan.
Lvov, he founded the Octobrist party, in the hope that the Tsar's Government would recognize the necessity of great reforms and work with the moderate Liberals of the Zemstvos while safeguarding the monarchical principle.
He was severe, but just and impartial, and strove to effect necessary reforms by reducing the numbers of the Janissaries, improving the coinage, and checking the state expenditure.
In March his illness was evidently gaining on him, to his great grief, because he knew that he alone could yet save France from the distrust of her monarch and the present reforms, and from the foreign interference, which would assuredly bring about catastrophes unparalleled in the history of the world.
After he became field marshal, in 1784, he introduced many reforms into the army, and built a fleet in' the Black Sea, which, though constructed of very bad materials, did excellent service in Catherine's second Turkish War (1787-92).
It may be noted that Turgot always made the cures the agents of his charities and reforms when possible.
With the physiocrats, he believed in an enlightened absolutism, and looked to the king to carry through all reforms. As to the parlements, he opposed all interference on their part in legislation, considering that they had no competency outside the sphere of justice.
As a statesman he has been very variously estimated, but it is generally agreed that a large number of the reforms and ideas of the Revolution were due to him; the ideas did not as a rule originate with him, but it was he who first gave them prominence.
The Light Railways Act and the Locomotives on Highways Act were added to the statute book in 1896, and various clauses in the Finance Act effected reforms in respect of the death duties, the land-tax, farmers' income-tax and the beer duty.
Reforms were also made in the tedious technicalities of the feudal law.
Thanks to the exertions of Saliceti, one of the two deputies sent by the tiers etat of Corsica to the National Assembly of France, that body, on the 30th of November 1789, declared the island to be an integral part of the kingdom with right to participate in all the reforms then being decreed.
For the same reason he abstained from drastic religious reforms in his capacity as high-priest of Lydia.
Many reforms in ecclesiastical, educational, financial and administrative matters were introduced, and in general the grand-duchy may be said to have passed largely under the influence of Prussia, which, by an arrangement made in 1896, controls the Hessian railway system.
Conceived in the Hildebrandine spirit, his reforms led by a natural sequence to strained relations between Church and State; the equilibrium which he established was unstable, and depended too much upon his personal influence with the Conqueror.
His programme included the collective ownership of the means of production and the international association of labour, but when in June 1899 he entered Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet of "republican defence" as minister of commerce he limited himself to practical reforms, devoting his attention to the improvement of the mercantile marine, to the development of trade, of technical education, of the postal system, and to the amelioration of the conditions of labour.
This policy, coupled with certain administrative and revenue reforms, and some private attempts in behalf of public education, made the last seven years of his rule, from 1827 to 1834, the most prosperous in the Spanish regime.
The Revolution of 1868 in Spain promised such salutary changes for the Antilles as the introduction of political parties, the restoration of representation in the Spanish Cortes, and the enfranchisement of the slaves; but the imprudent "Insurrection of Lares," and other outbreaks of 1867-68, delayed these anticipated reforms. The reactionaries feared separation from the mother country.
More than a modicum of rusticity is needed as a protection to a man who attempts such colossal reforms. This necessity had its consequences in the disquieting inequalities of Wagner's early work, and the undeniable egotism that embittered his fiery nature throughout his life; while the cut-and-dried system of culture of later Wagnerian discipleship has revenged him in a specially sacerdotal type of tradition, which makes progress even in the study of his works impossible except through revolt.
In both provinces he was distinguished for his practical reforms and for his power in preaching.
The reforms proved a failure, mainly owing to the tacit opposition of the Turkish authorities, the insufficient powers attributed to the European officials, the racial feuds and the deplorable financial situation.
The reign of Josiah is important for the biblical account of the great religious reforms which began in his eighteenth year, when he manifested interest in the repair of the Temple at Jerusalem.
Although the character of the reforms throws remarkable light upon the condition of religion in Judah in the time of Josiah, it is to be observed that the writings of the contemporary prophets (Jeremiah, Ezekiel) make it very questionable whether the narratives are thoroughly trustworthy for the history of the king's measures.
He held this position till 1848, and worked with a remarkable intensity - holding teachers' conventions, delivering numerous lectures and addresses, carrying on an extensive correspondence, introducing numerous reforms, planning and inaugurating the Massachusetts normal school system, founding and editing The Common School Journal (1838), and preparing a series of Annual Reports, which had a wide circulation and are still considered as being "among the best expositions, if, indeed, they are not the very best ones, of the practical benefits of a common school education both to the individual and to the state" (Hinsdale).
He remained in Egypt four years, his period of office coinciding with the first great reforms, after the danger of bankruptcy had been avoided.
Though this was recognized by the more far-seeing of the Bond leaders, they were ready to support Kruger, whether or not he granted reforms, and they sought to make Milner's position impossible.