Meanings
present singular third person perfectionates · participle present perfectionating · participle past perfectionated · past perfectionated
- archaictransitiveTo make perfect or complete; to perfect.First known use 16th c.
If interrupted, he remonstrated pathetically with his little maid. Every great artist, he said, had need of solitude to perfectionate his works.
1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 23, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC2 more examples
[P]ainters and sculptors, cjoosing the most elegant natural beauties, perfectionate the idea, and advance their art above Nature itself in her individual productions; which is the utmost mastery of human performance.
1695, John Dryden, Parallel of Poetry and Painting‘I agree with you,’ replied the stranger; ‘we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves—such a friend ought to be—do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures.’
1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC
Origin
- Middle Frenchperfectionner
- Englishperfectionate
Borrowed from Middle French perfectionner (with common translation of French -er to English -ate; as in assassinate). Equivalent to perfection + -ate (verb-forming suffix).
More words from Middle French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
perfectionate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perfectionate
“perfectionate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perfectionate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “perfectionate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perfectionate.
Source: perfectionate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.