approve

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) enPR: ə-pro͞ovʹ, IPA^(key): /əˈpɹuːv/
• Rhymes: -uːv

• Audio (UK):

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• Hyphenation: ap‧prove

From Middle English aproven, appreoven, appreven, apreven, borrowed from Old French aprover, approver, approuvir, appreuver (“to approve”), from Latin approbō, from ad + probō (“to esteem as good, approve, prove”). Doublet of approbate. By surface analysis, ad- +‎ prove.

approve (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.
   • 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     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.

   Although we may disagree with it, we must nevertheless approve the sentence handed down by the court-martial.

2. (transitive) To regard as good; to commend; to be pleased with; to think well of.

   We approve the measure of the administration, for it is an excellent decision.

3. (transitive, archaic) To make proof of; to demonstrate; to prove or show practically.
   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section III:

     He had long burned with impatience to approve his valour.

   • 1812–1818, Lord Byron, Child Harolde's Piligrimage

     'T is an old lesson; Time approves it true.

   • 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Second Series:

     Opportunities to approve […] worth.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession Of James II:

     He had approved himself a great warrior.

   • 1922, E R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎, London: Jonathan Cape, page 37:

     Sore against our will did we of Witchland join with the Demons in that war, foreseeing (as hath been bloodily approved) that the issue must be but the puffing up of the Demons, who desire no other thing than to be lords and tyrants of all the world.

4. (intransitive, followed by "of") To consider worthy (to); to be pleased (with); to accept.

   Her mother never approves of any of her boyfriends. She thinks nobody is good enough for her little girl.

   • 1758, Jonathan Swift, The History of the Four Last Years of the Queen:

     Their address was in the most dutiful manner, approving of what her majesty had done toward a peace, and dissolve her parliament

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession Of James II:

     They had not approved of the deposition of James.

   • 1995, The Verve, A Northern Soul:

     Dad didn't approve of me, do you? I'm alive with something inside of me.

   • 2016, Mitski, Your Best American Girl:

     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

5. (archaic, transitive, usually with a reflexive pronoun) To show to be worthy; to demonstrate the merits of.
   • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Duty and Advantageous of Trust in God:

     The first care and concern must be to approve himself to God.

From Middle English approuen, approven, from Old French aprouer; a- + a form apparently derived from the pro, prod, in Latin prōsum (“be useful or profitable”). Compare with improve.

approve (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.

• “approve”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

approve

1. inflection of approvar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative