Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use mend in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Mend means to physically repair (something that is broken, defaced, decayed, torn, or otherwise damaged). Example: “My trousers have a big rip in them and need mending.”

Examples of mend by meaning

verbTo physically repair (something that is broken, defaced, decayed, torn, or otherwise damaged).

  • My trousers have a big rip in them and need mending.
  • When your car breaks down, you can take it to the garage to have it mended.
  • The boy first remembered him as sitting in the door of the plantation blacksmith-shop, where he sharpened plow-points and mended tools and even did rough carpenter-work when he was not in the woods.1941 January 25, William Faulkner, “Go Down, Moses”, in Go Down, Moses, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1942 (3rd printing), →OCLC...

verbTo add fuel to (a fire).

  • He mended the fire and turned the meat on the greenwood racks.1992 May, Cormac McCarthy, chapter I, in All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy; 1), London: Picador, published 1993, →ISBN, page 92

verbTo put (something) in a better state; to ameliorate, to improve, to reform, to set right.

  • Her stutter was mended by a speech therapist.
  • My broken heart was mended.

verbTo remove fault or sin from (someone, or their behaviour or character); to improve morally, to reform.

  • Oh, God mend them!1907 January 26 (first performance), John M[illington] Synge, The Playboy of the Western World […], Dublin: Maunsell and Company […]...

verbIn mend one's pace: to adjust (a pace or speed), especially to match that of someone or something else; also, to...

  • But though I mended my pace, I was only just in time to see them turn into - of all places - my hotel.1924, Stanley John Weyman, “XII The Chief of Police”, in The Traveller in the Fur Cloak

verbTo restore (someone or something) to a healthy state; to cure, to heal.

  • If we were making no progress with Haraldsen's business we were at any rate mending his health.1936 July, John Buchan, “Sundry Doings at Fosse”, in The Island of Sheep, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, part I (Fosse), page 112

verbOf an illness: to become less severe; also, of an injury or wound, or an injured body part: to get better, to heal.

  • Some days later it happened that young Heriotside was stepping home over the Lang Muir about ten at night—it being his first jaunt from home since his arm had mended.1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William...

verbTo become morally improved or reformed.

  • "Well, it's never too late to mend," said Anne roguishly.1909 September, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “A Chapter of Accidents”, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company...

More sentences with mend

  • A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.From the entry tear
  • After mending the lion's leg, we returned him to the wild.From the entry wild
  • My foot is on the mend but it still hurts to walk.From the entry on the mend
  • Our marriage went through a difficult time, but now it is on the mend.From the entry on the mend
  • Q: When are you going to mend the door? A: All in good time!From the entry all in good time
  • I could mend your bicycle for you, if that would help.From the entry for you
  • A restful night's sleep mended his spirits.From the entry restful
  • I don't think he was very happy with my work, so I'm going to talk to him and try to mend fences.From the entry mend fences
  • You'd better mend your ways sharpish!From the entry sharpish
  • A midcrossing rudder failure could only be mended in becalmed seas.2014 July 18, Eric Stiller, Keep Australia On Your Left: A True Story of an Attempt to Circumnavigate Australia by Kayak, Tor Publishing…. From the entry midcrossing
  • Now you can go and buy some cotton thread and mend your torn trousers."2010, Vietnam Courier. From the entry xus
  • And furthermore, just because I agree to take a walk doesn't mean we've mended fences.2009, Elinor Lipman, The Family Man, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 23. From the entry mend fences
  • The 'make do and mend' campaign was the Board of Trade's central propaganda effort directed at housewives.2000 Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska - Austerity in Britain: Rationing, Controls, and Consumption, 1939-1955. From the entry make do and mend
  • One of the bows had been mended with adhesive tape, and one of the lenses was cracked.1991, Stephen King, Needful Things. From the entry bow
  • This could include mending roads and streets, constructure of drainage canals etc.1991, K. Sivadasan Pillai, Relevance of Peace Education, page 85. From the entry constructure
  • Too impatient to unravel the tangled knot, he had cut it, and nothing could mend it now.1914 May, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “Cutting the Tangled Knot”, in Their Mutual Child [The Coming of Bill], New York, N.Y.: Boni and…. From the entry unravel
  • My steak is too juicy my lobster too buttery! ¶ But seriously, sounds like the mending gods love you dearly.2025 November 9, JustWelfare, “Why do people protect mending villagers so much?”, in r/Minecraft (Reddit post), archived from the original…. From the entry my steak is too juicy, my lobster is too buttery
  • I've mended many a shoe fer him in his younger days afore he got up in the world."2013, Grace Livingston Hill, Ladybird, Barbour Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry useta
  • Suddenly she’d turned into a fragile thing in their bed, a bone-china cup of a woman, a woman who wouldn’t mend.2013, Alison MacLeod, Unexploded, Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 39. From the entry fiercity
  • To mend a sandal, I removed the damaged parts, and knitted up the rest with the metal tracing spatula.2009, Omi Hatashin, Private Yokoi's War and Life on Guam, 1944-1972, page 61. From the entry knit up
  • It's playwork mending for him compared with the other boys.2007, George De Horne Vaizey, The Fortunes of the Farrells. From the entry playwork
  • The leccy company to come and mend the fuses?"2006, Ramsey Campbell, The Overnight. From the entry leccy
  • Patronage and political fence mending had come to bore him.1995, Jack Bass, The Transformation of Southern Politics, page 295. From the entry fence-mending
  • Hedge wizards specialize in minor but useful magicks, using spells like mending and knock rather than magic missile and irritation.1990 November, Gregg Sharp, “Hedge Wizards”, in Dragon, volume 15, number 6, page 19. From the entry hedge wizard
  • The exegete tells him, according to Theophrastus, to take the sack to a leather shop and have it mended.1960, ibid.. From the entry exegete
  • Which, for a tenderer-hearted man never lived, he would have brought back with him, Sir, to mend the family fortunes, Sir.1941, Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →ISBN, page 130. From the entry tender-hearted
  • Ye see I wor as gawmless as our 'Arriet when I wor a lass, but I mended faster.1916, William Riley, Netherleigh, page 132. From the entry gawmless
  • He traveled almost altogether afoot, observing the strictest economy and supporting himself by occasional jobs of saddlery and harness mending.1905, John F. Hume, chapter 6, in The Abolitionists, Together with Personal Memories of the Struggle for Human Rights, 1830-1864, New…. From the entry saddlery
  • Car-sharing, wearing patchwork clothes (signifying mending rather than throwing away) and carrying reusable coffee cups all came up as signs of environmentally virtuous behaviour.2026 March 2, “The greenest flags: virtue signals that help you find love – from patchwork clothes to car sharing”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry recycle

Meaning of mend

  1. verb To physically repair (something that is broken, defaced, decayed, torn, or otherwise damaged).
  2. verb To add fuel to (a fire).
  3. verb To correct or put right (an error, a fault, etc.); to rectify, to remedy.

Full definition of mend

Questions about mend in a sentence

How do you use mend in a sentence?
Mend is used as a verb and noun. For example: “My trousers have a big rip in them and need mending.”
What is a short sentence with mend?
“Oh, God mend them!”
What does mend mean?
Mend means to physically repair (something that is broken, defaced, decayed, torn, or otherwise damaged).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mend (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use mend in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/mend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.