Word Direct Answers

What does "reform" mean?

Reform: 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. The example alone of a vicious prince will corrupt an age; but that of a good one will not reform it. Swift.

Additional senses

  1. 2.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.
  2. 3.Amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved; reformation; as, reform of elections; reform of government. 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.] See Reformation.

Sources