approve

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

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

     He had approved himself a great warrior.

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

     Opportunities to approve […] worth.

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

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

   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section III:

     He had long burned with impatience to approve his valour.

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.

   • 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

   • 1995, The Verve, A Northern Soul:

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

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

     They had not approved of the deposition of James.

   • 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

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