reformed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of reform.

   Parliament reformed the voting laws after years of public protest.

   The prison system was reformed following a lengthy inquiry.

   Note

   One spelling covers three different verbs. Parliament reformed the laws (improved them). A gambler who has reformed has mended his own ways and needs no object. A group that reformed after a split has simply formed again. The same form serves as simple past and as participle, after have or in the passive (the system was reformed), so only context tells the three meanings apart.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having given up wrongdoing or bad habits and improved in character and conduct.

   A reformed con artist spent his later years lecturing on fraud prevention.

   She presents herself as a reformed rebel who now follows every rule.

   Similarredeemed, repentant, changed

   Oppositeunrepentant, incorrigible, unreformed

   Note

   Its natural place is in front of a noun that names the old habit: a reformed gambler, a reformed drunkard. The noun still describes what the person was, and the adjective cancels it, so the phrase means someone who no longer gambles or drinks. It can also be graded, since a change of character comes by degrees: one can grow more reformed over time.

3. 3
   adjective

   Corrected and restored to purity or excellence; used especially of the Protestant churches of the Reformation, and more narrowly of those that broke with Luther over consubstantiation and, they claimed, carried reform further.

   The Reformed churches of the sixteenth century emphasized scripture over inherited tradition.

   Many Reformed theologians traced their teaching back to Calvin rather than Luther.

   SimilarCalvinist

   Note

   As the name of a church tradition it takes a capital: the Reformed faith, as Macaulay writes it, or Reformed theology. Capitalized, it is a fixed label for one branch of Protestantism, not a verdict that the church has improved. Written lowercase, it keeps the broad sense of corrected or amended. It is also distinct from the "mended ways" meaning used of people.

4. 4
   adjectiveUK

   Of an officer, kept on in military service at half or full pay after the company or troop has been disbanded.

   The reformed officer retained his rank and pay even after his regiment was dissolved.

   The colonel kept two reformed officers on his staff after their troop of horse was disbanded.

   Note

   A British military term that applies to officers alone. A reformed officer had seen his troop or company disbanded, yet he stayed in service, drawing half or full pay. Outside a military setting the phrase reads as the moral sense, as though the officer had given up a vice, so the army context needs to be plain.

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