fix

A repair or corrective action.

Noun

  1. A repair or corrective action.
    • That plumber's fix is much better than the first one's.
    • Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […] But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of...
  2. A difficult situation; a quandary or dilemma; a predicament.
    • It rained before we repaired the roof, and were we in a fix!
    • "How come you're in this fix?" - 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 13:

    Synonyms: ass in a sling bind bucket of syrup calvary cauldron cross cross to bear difficulty dilemma dire straits doghouse fix hole jam kettle kettle of fish ordeal pickle pinch plight predicament quandary quagmire situation

  3. A single dose of a narcotic drug, especially when injected.
    • And Cash told me of cases where two hips take a fix together and then one pulls out his badge. - 1953, William Lee [pseudonym; William S. Burroughs], Junkie, New York: Ace Books:
    • Maybe I will find in yage what I was looking for in junk and weed and coke. Yage may be the final fix. - 1953, William Lee [pseudonym; William S. Burroughs], Junkie, New York: Ace Books:
    • Just one fix! - 1992, William Alain Jourgensen, “Just One Fix”, in Psalm 69, performed by Ministry:

    1. (figurative, by extension) Something that satisfies a yearning or a craving.

    2. (figurative, by extension) A compulsive desire or thrill.

  4. A prearrangement of the outcome of a supposedly competitive process, such as a sporting event, a game, an election, a trial, or a bid.
    • As the professional thief notes: You can tell by the way the case is handled in court when the fix is in. - 1963, Howard Saul Becker, Outsiders: studies in the sociology of deviance, page 160:
  5. An understanding, grasp of something.
    • Each character comes to us with her own particular fix on reality, shaped by a lifetime of experience and by the urgencies of the moment. - 1981 December 1, Susan Saxe, “Survival with Agony and Art”, in Gay Community...
  6. A determination of location.
    • We have a fix on your position.
  7. A non-waypoint terrain feature used to make a determination of location.
  8. Fettlings (mixture used to line a furnace)

Origin

From Middle English fixen, borrowed from Old French *fixer (attested only as ficher, fichier; > English fitch), from fix (“fastened; fixed”), from Latin fīxus (“immovable; steady; stable; fixed”), from fīgō (“to drive in; stick; fasten”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to jab; stick; set”). Related to dig.

Forms

fixes fixe

Derived

fixless fix room get a fix in a fix Neptune's Fix out of fix postfix prefix quick fix radio fix Saxbe fix techno-fix the fix is in

Verb

  1. To pierce; now generally replaced by transfix.

    1. (transitive, by extension) (Of a piercing look) to direct at someone.

      • He fixed me with a sickly grin, and said, "I told you it wouldn't work!"
      • She sniffed, too, comprehendingly, and fixed her son with a relentless eye. - 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 111:
  2. To attach; to affix; to hold in place or at a particular time.
    • A dab of chewing gum will fix your note to the bulletin board.
    • A leech can fix itself to your skin without you feeling it.
    • The Constitution fixes the date when Congress must meet.

    1. (transitive, figuratively, usually in the passive) To focus or determine (oneself, on a concept); to fixate.

      • She's fixed on the idea of becoming a doctor.

    2. (transitive, chess) To prevent enemy pawns from advancing by directly opposing the most advanced one with one of one's own pawns so as to threaten to capture any advancing backward pawns.

  3. To mend, to repair.
    • That heater will start a fire if you don't fix it.
    • You can't fix stupid.
    • Fix this for me.

    1. (hyperbolic, chiefly with would) To be immensely pleasurable to.

      • Some pizza rolls would fix me right now.
      • Getting tongued by a hot woman would fix me.
  4. To prepare (food or drink).
    • She fixed dinner for the kids.
    • She fixed Peter a slice of black bread and jam by cutting the hard crust petalwise around the edge, so the child could tear off convenient pieces. - 1945, Marianne Steiff Finton Meisel, Years Before the Flood, page 14:
    • I fixed us drinks—orange juice with some vodka I'd gotten on sale—and washed a few dishes to get my mind off Jess and the fact of his not texting back. - 2013, Iris Smyles, Iris Has Free Time, Berkeley, CA:...
  5. To make (a contest, vote, or gamble) unfair; to privilege one contestant or a particular group of contestants, usually before the contest begins; to arrange immunity for defendants by tampering with the justice system via bribery or extortion.
    • A majority of voters believed the election was fixed in favor of the incumbent.
  6. To surgically render an animal, especially a pet, infertile.
    • Rover stopped digging under the fence after we had the vet fix him.
  7. To map (a point or subset) to itself.
    • The function f#58;#92;mathbb#123;R#125;#92;to#92;mathbb#123;R#125;#59;f(x)#58;#61;4x-3 fixes the point 1#92;in#92;mathbb#123;R#125;, since f(1)#61;4(1)-3#61;1.
  8. To take revenge on, to best; to serve justice on an assumed miscreant.
    • He got caught breaking into lockers, so a couple of guys fixed him after work.
  9. To render (a photographic impression) permanent by treating with such applications as will make it insensitive to the action of light.
  10. To convert into a stable or available form.
    • Legumes are valued in crop rotation for their ability to fix nitrogen.
    • it is well to fix with sodium hyposulphite , and to wash as usual - 1878, William de Wiveleslie Abney, A treatise on photography:
  11. To become fixed; to settle or remain permanently; to cease from wandering; to rest.
    • Accuſing ſome malignant Star, Not Britain, for that fateful War, Your kindneſs baniſhes your fear, Reſolv’d to fix for ever here. - 1665, Edmund Waller, Upon Her Maiesties New Buildings at Somerset-House:
    • A cheerless place! the solitary Bee, Whose buzzing was the only sound of life, Flew there on restless wing, Seeking in vain one blossom, where to fix. - 1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the...
  12. To become firm, so as to resist volatilization; to cease to flow or be fluid; to congeal; to become hard and malleable, as a metallic substance.
    • quicksilver will fix, so asto endure the hammer - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […]...

Forms

fixes fixing fixt fixed no-table-tags glossary fix fixest fixedst fixeth - fixe

Synonyms

impale run through stick join put together unite patch put to rights rectify doctor rig neuter spay desex castrate establish settle down

Antonyms

move change

Derived

affix affixative biofix cryofix fixability fixable fixed fixer-upper fixety fixie fixing room fixings fixism fixist fix-it fix it again Tony fixity fixive fixly fixme fix on fix someone's clock fix someone's flint fix someone's wagon