reform

Multiple Entries:
  reform    re-form  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
reform/rɪˈfɔːm/

▶verb

• 1 make changes in (something, especially an institution or practice) in order to improve it.

  ■ cause (someone) to relinquish an immoral or criminal lifestyle.

• 2 Chemistry subject (hydrocarbons) to a catalytic process in which straight-chain molecules are converted to branched forms.

▶noun the action or process of reforming.

– derivatives
reformable adjective,
reformative adjective,
reformed adjective,
reformer noun.

– origin ME (in the senses ‘restore peace’ and ‘restore to the original condition’): from OFr. reformer or L. reformare, from re- ‘back’ + formare ‘to form’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
re-form

▶verb form or cause to form again.

– derivatives
re-formation noun.