Dictionary

perfectionate en · VERB

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French perfectionner (with common translation of French -er to English -ate; as in assassinate). Equivalent to perfection + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Meanings

1. (archaic, transitive) To make perfect or complete; to perfect.
   • ‘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:
   • [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:
   • 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, →OCLC:

Forms