improvement
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪmˈpɹuːvmənt/
Forms: form: improvements
form: emprovement
Etymology: From Anglo-Norman emprouwement. By surface analysis, improve + -ment.
Senses: examples: text: November 9, 1662, Robert South, Of the Creation of Man in the Image of God
I look upon your city as […] the best place of improvement.
text: Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.
ref: 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres:
text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:
glosses: The act of improving; advancement or growth; a bettering
examples: text: good improvement of his reason.
ref: 1705, Samuel Clarke, Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion:
text: I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.
ref: 1681, John Tillotson, A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr Thomas Gouge:
glosses: The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; practical application, for example of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.
glosses: The state of being improved; betterment; advance
examples: text: the new edition is an improvement on the old.
text: The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.
ref: 1712 January 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, January 12, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 273; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
glosses: Something which is improved
examples: text: Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.
ref: 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
glosses: Increase; growth; progress; advance.
glosses: Valuable additions or betterments, for example buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
qualifier: Patent Laws
glosses: A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.
Synonyms: improval
amelioration
Hyponyms: self-improvement
Derived terms: disimprovement
home improvement
Kaldor-Hicks improvement
misimprovement
nonimprovement
overimprovement
Pareto-improvement
Pareto improvement
pseudoimprovement
require improvement
tomahawk improvement
unimprovement
Related terms: uplift