v.
- attach or position securely.
▸
(
fix on)
direct or be directed unwaveringly toward:
her gaze fixed on Jess.
- 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.
- repair or restore.
- 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.
- 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.
- informal deviously influence the outcome of.
- informal take an injection of a narcotic drug.
- N. Amer. castrate or spay (an animal).
n.
- an act of fixing.
- informal a difficult or awkward situation.
- informal a solution to a problem, especially one that is hastily devised:
there's no quick fix to the recession.
- informal a dose of a narcotic drug to which one is addicted.
- a position determined by visual or radio bearings or astronomical observations.
Phrase
Derivative
- fixable adj.
- fixed adj.
- fixedly adv.
- fixedness n.
- fixer n.
Etymology
ME: partly from OFr. fix ‘fixed’, partly from med. L. fixare ‘to fix’, both from L. fixus, past part. of figere ‘fix, fasten’.