rectify

present singular third person rectifies · participle present rectifying · participle past rectified · past rectified

1. obsoletetransitiveTo heal (an organ or part of the body).First known use 14th–18th c.
2. transitiveTo restore (someone or something) to its proper condition; to straighten out, to set right.First known use 16th c.
3. transitiveTo remedy or fix (an undesirable state of affairs, situation etc.).First known use 15th c.

   to rectify the crisis

4. transitivechemistryTo purify or refine (a substance) by distillation.First known use 15th c.
5. transitiveTo correct or amend (a mistake, defect etc.).First known use 16th c.
6. archaictransitiveTo correct (someone who is mistaken).First known use 16th c.

   For thus their Sense informeth them, and herein their Reason cannot Rectifie them; and therefore hopelessly continuing in mistakes, they live and die in their absurdities […]

   1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3

7. historicaltransitiveTo adjust (a globe or sundial) to prepare for the solution of a proposed problem.First known use 16th c.
8. transitivebusinessTo convert (alternating current) into direct current.First known use 19th c.
9. transitivemathematicsTo determine the length of a curve included between two limits.
10. transitiveTo produce (as factitious gin or brandy) by redistilling bad wines or strong spirits (whisky, rum, etc.) with flavourings.