Definition of "approve"

approve¹

/əˈpɹuːv/

verb
third-person singular simple present approves, present participle approving, simple past and past participle approved
1. (transitive) To officially sanction; to ratify; to confirm; to set as satisfactory.
  Quotations
  It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.
  2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
2. (transitive) To regard as good; to commend; to be pleased with; to think well of.
3. (transitive, archaic) To make proof of; to demonstrate; to prove or show practically.
  Quotations
  He had approved himself a great warrior.
  1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession Of James II
  Opportunities to approve […] worth.
  1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Second Series
  'T is an old lesson; Time approves it true.
  1812-1818, Lord Byron, Child Harolde's Piligrimage
  He had long burned with impatience to approve his valour.
  1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section III
4. (intransitive, followed by "of") To consider worthy (to); to be pleased (with); to accept.
  Quotations
  Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me. But I do, I think I do. And you're an all-American boy
  2016, Mitski, Your Best American Girl
  Dad didn't approve of me, do you? I'm alive with something inside of me.
  1995, The Verve, A Northern Soul
  They had not approved of the deposition of James.
  1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession Of James II
  Their address was in the most dutiful manner, approving of what her majesty had done toward a peace, and dissolve her parliament
  1758, Jonathan Swift, The History of the Four Last Years of the Queen
5. (archaic, transitive, usually with a reflexive pronoun) To show to be worthy; to demonstrate the merits of.
  Quotations
  The first care and concern must be to approve himself to God.
  a. 1729, John Rogers, The Duty and Advantageous of Trust in God

approve²

/əˈpɹuːv/

verb
third-person singular simple present approves, present participle approving, simple past and past participle approved
1. (transitive, law, English law) To make profit of; to convert to one's own profit — said especially of waste or common land appropriated by the lord of the manor.

Definition of "approve"

approve1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

approve2

verb

approve¹

approve²