Improvement

Pronunciation

Alternative forms

• emprovement obsolete

Origin

From Anglo-Norman emprouwement. See improve + -ment.

Full definition of improvement

Noun

1. The act of improving; advancement or growth; promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.
• Robert SouthI look upon your city as the best place of improvement.
• Hugh BlairExercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 19, Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
• 2013-06-22, Engineers of a different kind, Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers....Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.
2. The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
• Samuel ClarkeA good improvement of his reason.
• John TillotsonI shall make some improvement of this doctrine.
3. The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.
• Joseph AddisonThe parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.
4. Increase; growth; progress; advance.
• Joseph AddisonThere is a design of publishing the history of architecture, with its several improvements and decays.
• Robert SouthThose vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.
5. (plural): Valuable additions or betterments, as buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
6. (Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.

Synonyms

• improval