Amending

to alter, modify, rephrase, or add to or subtract from (a motion, bill, const-tution, etc.) by formal procedure:
congress may amend the proposed tax bill.
to change for the better; improve:
to amend one’s ways.
synonyms: ameliorate, better.
antonyms: worsen.
to remove or correct faults in; rectify.
to grow or become better by reforming oneself:
he amends day by day.
synonyms: improve, ameliorate.
antonyms: worsen.
contemporary examples

the problem with both these solutions is that they depend on amending the const-tution.
justice stevens should quit now adam winkler april 4, 2010

hatch is found guilty of violating his probation by not amending his tax returns or paying his taxes.
richard hatch can’t win andy dehnart may 18, 2011

so what the anti-citizens united movement really needs to do is something even harder than amending the const-tution.
undo citizens united? we’d only scratch the surface jedediah purdy november 11, 2014

“any talk of amending the const-tution is just wrong,” she said in a white house press briefing.
a gop blunder on immigration mark mckinnon august 11, 2010

amending all the laws on the books that govern contracts would take too long.
overregulated america philip k. howard february 16, 2009

historical examples

bind yourself to do it by amending the charter so that the highest price your gas can be sold at will be sixty cents.
frenzied finance thomas w. lawson

amending his phrase, he said: “but for him, things would have been very different!”
casanova’s homecoming arthur schnitzler

this is an act for consolidating and amending the statutes relating to offences against the person.
the chronicles of crime or the new newgate calendar. v. 2/2 camden pelham

it was an indoor job, they declared, amending their first opinion.
anthony trent, master criminal wyndham martyn

mr. asquith added that the amending bill would be taken on july 28.
the annual register 1914 anonymous

verb (transitive)
to improve; change for the better
to remove faults from; correct
to alter or revise (legislation, a const-tution, etc) by formal procedure
v.

early 13c., “to free from faults, rectify,” from old french amender (12c.), from latin emendare “to correct, free from fault,” from ex- “out” (see ex-) + menda “fault, blemish,” from pie -mend- “physical defect, fault” (cf. sanskrit minda “physical blemish,” old irish mennar “stain, blemish,” welsh mann “sign, mark”).

supplanted in senses of “repair, cure” by its shortened offspring mend (v.). meaning “to add to legislation” (ostensibly to correct or improve it) is recorded from 1777. related: amended; amending.