bonify

English

Alternative forms

• bonafy

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbəʊnɪfaɪ/
• Rhymes: -əʊnɪfaɪ

Etymology 1

From Latin bonus (“good”) +‎ -ify (“make”). Compare French bonifier.

Verb

bonify (third-person singular simple present bonifies, present participle bonifying, simple past and past participle bonified)

1. (transitive) To convert into, or make, good; to improve.
   • 1678, R[alph] Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated, London: […] Richard Royston, […], →OCLC:

     to bonify evils, or tincture them with good

   • 1854, A. R. Reeves, “Progress of the Inventive Art in France and in England”, in Ainsworth's Magazine, volume 25, page 205:

     The inventor has (of course) been decorated, and, I am informed, has received a handsome pension from Napoleaon III., who, like his great uncle, loves and cherishes every invention tending to bonify and superiorise—let me be allowed the expression—his navy.

   • 1856, Charles John Huffam Dickens, “The Hall of Wines”, in Household Words:

     A flask suffices to perfume, bonify, and age, a hogshead (barrique) of wine.

   • 2017, Chris Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune, page 471:

     In the previous condition of overcoming, it was notable that while the malefics could only maltreat by overcoming through a superior sign-based square, the benefics could bonify by overcoming through a superior square or trine.

   • 2018, Patrick Lussier, ‎Eric Beauregard, Sexual Offending: A Criminological Perspective:

     It is not suggested that the criminological viewpoint is superior to others, but rather that a criminology voice and viewpoint can bonify the the current state of theorizing , research , and policy development.

2. To remit or reduce a price, typically in order to compensate for a tax for fee.
   • 1902, Benjamin Taylor, “Sugar and the Convention”, in The Fortnightly, volume 77, page 639:

     With the help of a surtax of 11 florins per 100 kilos., the refiners fix the home price at a level which enables them to bonify the manufacturers for all that is sold at home, and the exporters for all that is sent abroad.

   • 1904, Henry Deutsch, Arbitrage in Bullion, Coins, Bills, Stocks, Shares and Options, page 74:

     Bills due on a Sunday or holiday become due on the preceeding day; the seller has to bonify the bill stamp necessary in the country where the bill is payable.

   • 1916, Reports of Tax Cases - Volume 6, page 112:

     They would not come up beyond 1/2⅞, and we will bonify ⅛ in order to keep them on this yarn.

Derived terms

• bonifiable
• bonification

 

Etymology 2

bone +‎ -ify

Verb

bonify (third-person singular simple present bonifies, present participle bonifying, simple past and past participle bonified)

1. (rare) To make bony; to ossify or to pare down to the bones.
   • 1820, William Blake, Jerusalem:

     The inhabitants of Albion at the harvest & the vintage Feel their brain cut round beneath the temples, shrieking, Bonifying into a skull, the marrow exuding in dismal pain.

   • 1896, Mary Wood-Allen, The Marvels of Our Bodily Dwelling, page 21:

     The are beginning to ossify, or bonify, if we may make a word.

   • 1913, P.A. Strerath, “Calcium in its Physiology and its Therapeutical Value”, in The Medical Fortnightly, volume 43, page 513:

     As soon as the cartilage is formed from the fibrous tissue the osteoblasts, which carry in their protoplasm the calcium salts, deposit their contents along the blood stream and so bonify the tissue.

   • 2021, Xiujun (James) Li, ‎Yu Zhou, Microfluidic Devices for Biomedical Applications, page 179:

     In addition to spheres, more complex microstructures and properties bonify the control of the releasing profile such as with core-shell structures (Shum, Kim, & Weitz, 2008) and with stimuli-responsive microgels (Gu et al., 2018; Herranz-Blanco et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2011; Maher et al., 2017; Shah, Kim, Agresti, Weitz, & Chu, 2008).