Redresses

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Makes amends or compensates for a harm done ; offers a solution or correction to a problem or injustice
2. Takes action to correct or set right a grievance or injury ; delivers relief or repair to a fault or unfair situation
3. Acts to right a wrongdoing by giving compensation ; supplies a fix or adjustment to remedy an issue

Etymology: The verb "redress" is a compound of "re-" ("again") and "dress," and its ancestry runs through the Latin word for "straight." The Latin "dīrēctus," meaning "straight," gave rise to a Vulgar Latin verb "*dīrēctiāre," which became "drecier" and then "dresser" in Old French, meaning "to arrange" or "to stand up." English "dress" comes from this line, and "redress" joins it with the prefix from Old French "redrecier," meaning "to stand up again." The idea of standing something back up is what carries the word's sense of repair. Medieval French used "redresser" for rebuilding what had been damaged and for setting a wrong right, so the concept of rectifying an injury grew naturally out of the image of making something upright once more. English took the word from Anglo-Norman and Middle French forms in the Middle English period, and the older sense of restoring or setting straight is still visible when "redress" means putting a wrong right.

Synonyms: rectifies, corrects, amends, remedies, compensates

Antonyms: ignores, exacerbates, worsens, aggravates, compounds