fixer

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fix/fɪks/

▶verb

• 1 attach or position securely.

  ■ (fix on) direct or be directed unwaveringly toward: her gaze fixed on Jess.

• 2 decide or settle on.

  ■ establish the exact location of (something) by using radar, visual bearings, or astronomical observation.

  ■ assign or determine (a person's liability or responsibility) for legal purposes.

• 3 repair or restore.

• 4 make arrangements for.

  ■ (fix someone up) informal provide someone with something.

  ■ informal, chiefly N. Amer. provide with food or drink.

  ■ (be fixing to do something) N. Amer. informal be intending to do something.

• 5 make unchanging or constant.

  ■ make (a dye, photographic image, or drawing) permanent.

  ■ Biology preserve or stabilize (a specimen) with a chemical substance.

  ■ (of a plant or microorganism) assimilate (nitrogen or carbon dioxide) by forming a non-gaseous compound.

• 6 informal deviously influence the outcome of.

• 7 informal take an injection of a narcotic drug.

• 8 N. Amer. castrate or spay (an animal).

▶noun

• 1 an act of fixing.

• 2 informal a difficult or awkward situation.

• 3 informal a solution to a problem, especially one that is hastily devised: there's no quick fix to the recession.

• 4 informal a dose of a narcotic drug to which one is addicted.

• 5 a position determined by visual or radio bearings or astronomical observations.

– phrases
get a fix on determine the position of.

■ informal determine the nature or facts of.

– derivatives
fixable adjective,
fixed adjective,
fixedly adverb,
fixedness noun,
fixer noun.

– origin ME: partly from OFr. fix ‘fixed’, partly from med. L. fixare ‘to fix’, both from L. fixus, past part. of figere ‘fix, fasten’.