Dictionary

make whole en · VERB

Meanings

1. (qualifier:set phrase, transitive) To restore (someone) to a sound, healthy, or otherwise favorable condition.
   • Baby, you're the one, you still turn me on / You can make me whole again 2000, “Whole Again”, in Right Now, performed by Atomic Kitten:
   • There isn't a man in the world who doesn't pity that poor black sufferer, and there isn't a man that wouldn't make him whole if he could. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter VII:
   • Pale the children both did look, But the guest a beaker took; "Golden wine will make you whole!" 1882, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, chapter 6, in Hyperion: A Romance:
   • "Go on, go on," she breathed. "Make him whole. Make him what he was." More than once, whenever Strang's recuperation permitted, Linday put him under the anæsthetic and did terrible things, cutting and sewing. 1916, Jack London, “The End of the Story”, in The Turtles of Tasman:
2. (qualifier:set phrase, transitive) To repair or restore (something).
   • Nell, busily plying her needle, repaired the tattered window-hangings, drew together the rents that time had worn in the threadbare scraps of carpet, and made them whole and decent. 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Fifty-second”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC:
   • I see Mexico made whole by my hands; a land of peace and plenty. 1915, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 28, in Heart of the Sunset:
   • Pandarus: Fair prince, here is good broken music. Paris: You have broke it, cousin: and, by my life, you shall make it whole again. c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
3. (transitive) To provide (someone), especially under the terms of a legal judgment or an agreement, with financial compensation for lost money or other lost assets.
   • Alameda’s own crypto assets had plunged in value during the market downturn, meaning the firm had little way to make its lenders whole. 2023 October 11, David Yaffe-Bellany, Matthew Goldstein, J. Edward Moreno, “Caroline Ellison Says She and Sam Bankman-Fried Lied for Years”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Companies “are increasingly covering more complicated forms of compensation that executives forfeited from prior jobs,” says Hodgson. For instance, Home Depot promised Robert Nardelli half his salary and bonus, subject to certain undisclosed offsets, to make him whole for retirement benefits he earned at GE. 2007 June 15, Elizabeth MacDonald, “Gilded Greetings”, in forbes.com, retrieved 28 Jan 2014:
   • The only investor to be made whole, the lawsuit says, was First American Bank of New York, whose $5.5 million loan to the resort was repaid. 1994 September 25, Jan Hoffman, Matthew Purdy, “Harriman Suit: Misconduct, Or Just Bad Luck Investing?”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 Jan 2014:
   • Perelman receives a government subsidy called "yield maintenance"—totaling about $406 million to date—to make him whole for carrying money-losing assets in the thrift. 1991 February 10, Larry Light et al., “Were These Deals Too Sweet To Last?”, in BusinessWeek, retrieved 28 Jan 2014:

Forms

Synonyms

remedy (restore (someone) to a sound, healthy, or favorable condition) · heal (restore (someone) to a sound, healthy, or favorable condition) · fix (repair (something)) · repay (provide (someone) with compensation for a financial loss) · recompense (provide (someone) with compensation for a financial loss) · reimburse (provide (someone) with compensation for a financial loss) · restore (repair (something)) · compensate (provide (someone) with compensation for a financial loss) · cure (restore (someone) to a sound, healthy, or favorable condition) · restore (restore (someone) to a sound, healthy, or favorable condition)

Translations (4)

de entschädigen (to provide with financial compensation) · de wiederherstellen (to restore to a sound condition) · la integrō (to restore to a sound condition) · de schadlos stellen (to provide with financial compensation)