repair

Verb (1)

repair (third-person singular simple present repairs, present participle repairing, simple past and past participle repaired)

1. (ambitransitive) To restore to good working order, fix, or improve damaged condition; to mend; to remedy.
   • to repair a house, a road, a shoe, a ship
   • to repair a shattered fortune
2. (ambitransitive) To make amends for, as for an injury, by an equivalent; to indemnify for.
   • to repair a loss or damage
   • How can I repair this wrong?

Noun (1)

repair (countable and uncountable, plural repairs)

1. (ambitransitive) The act of repairing something.
   • I took the car to the workshop for repair.
   • One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.[…]But out of sight is out of mind. And that[…]means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair.2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891
   1. (ambitransitive) An act of correcting ("repairing") a mistake in communication.
      • To function in conversation, children must develop the ability to appreciate and respond to listener feedback. This developing awareness is evident in sequences during which children provide repairs in response to indications that a message has not been understood.1986 March, Bonnie Brinton, Martin Fujiki, Diane Frome Loeb, and Erika Winkler, “Development of Conversational Repair Strategies in Response to Requests for Clarification”, in Journal of Speech...
      • The ability to participate in conversational repair sequences constitutes an integral part of the language acquisition process (Gallagher, 1977; Garvey, 1975).2002 April, Tova Most, “The Use of Repair Strategies by Children With and Without Hearing Impairment”, in Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, volume 33, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, page 112
2. (ambitransitive) The result of repairing something.
   • If you look closely you can see the repair in the paintwork.
3. (ambitransitive) The condition of something, in respect of need for repair.
   • The car was overall in poor repair before the accident. But after the workshop had it for three weeks it was returned in excellent repair. But the other vehicle was beyond repair.
   • The 1300 class (Nos. 1301-16), one of which was damaged beyond repair in an accident, are Co-Cos, weigh 111 tons and have a top speed of 85 m.p.h.1962 March, J. M. Tolson, “The Netherlands Railways today—I”, in Modern Railways, page 172

Noun (2)

IPA/ɹɪˈpɛə̯/

repair (plural repairs)

1. (ambitransitive) The act of repairing or resorting to a place.
   • our annual repair to the mountains
   • The king sent a proclamation for their repair to their houses.1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed...
2. (ambitransitive) A place to which one goes frequently or habitually; a haunt.
   • There the fierce winds his tender force assail / And beat him downward to his first repair.1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number)

Verb (2)

IPA/ɹɪˈpɛə̯/

repair (third-person singular simple present repairs, present participle repairing, simple past and past participle repaired)

1. (ambitransitive) To transfer oneself to another place.
   • to repair to sanctuary for safety
   • Go, mount the winds, and to the shades repair.c. 1699 – 1703, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius His Thebais”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC

Verb (3)

UK/ˈɹiːpɛə̯/US/ˈɹiːpɛɚ/

repair (third-person singular simple present repairs, present participle repairing, simple past and past participle repaired)

1. (ambitransitive) To pair again.
   • Please try to repair the two earbuds to each other. Place both earbuds back into the charging case, wait for four seconds, then open it and see if they have been repaired with one another.