Meaning
Recovering from illness, injury or a difficult patch; visibly improving in health or condition. The phrase treats getting better as a process of repair: something broken - a bone, a constitution, a failing business - is being mended. It implies the worst has passed and steady improvement is under way, though recovery is not yet complete. Works for health (a patient, a broken bone) and figuratively for situations (a career, a team's season, an economy). Usually follows be, seem or keep. Regional use: All English varieties.
Origin
Mend is a shortened form of Old French amender, to correct or set right, borrowed into English around 1200 as a verb of repairing; the OED's earliest evidence for the noun is from around 1350 (William of Shoreham), and the intransitive sense to grow better dates from the late fourteenth century (Etymonline). The phrase itself is much younger: Etymonline states that on the mend, on the path to recovering from sickness, is attested by 1802, and Ammer's American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms likewise dates it to about 1800, noting it uses mend in the sense of repair. No colourful origin story attaches: it is a plain metaphor from mending clothes and broken objects, applied first to health and then figuratively to fortunes, economies and relationships.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- be on the mend
- keep on the mend
Usage Examples
- He is on the mend at last - the physio says he can drop the crutches next week.
- After three grim quarters, the business is finally on the mend.
- Gran is out of hospital and on the mend, though she still tires easily.