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| Date: | 1300-1400 |
| Language: | Old French |
| Origin: | reparer, from Latin reparare, from parare 'to prepare' |
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re‧pair1 S3
[transitive]
[transitive]1 to fix something that is damaged, broken, split, or not working properly [= mend British English] Dad was up the ladder, repairing the roof.
Dad was up the ladder, repairing the roof.2 formal to do something to remove harm that you have caused [= mend British English]
repair to something
phrasal verb old-fashioned to go to a place : Shall we repair to the drawing room?
Shall we repair to the drawing room? —repairer noun [countable]
WORD CHOICE: WORD CHOICE: repair, fix, mendRepair is slightly more formal than fix or mend. You can repair anything that is broken or damaged, or has a hole in it • He repairs old furniture. • It cost too much to get the car repaired. • The roof needs repairing in a few places. In British English, fix and mend have the same meaning, but people more often use fix to talk about repairing a machine, vehicle etc and mend to talk about repairing holes in clothes, roads, roofs, and fences. In American English, mend is usually only used to talk about repairing things with holes in them, especially clothes and shoes.
