improvement

plural improvements · alternative emprovement

1. countableuncountableThe act of improving; advancement or growth; a bettering

   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.

   3 more examples

   Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.

   1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   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.

   2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

2. countableuncountableThe 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.

   good improvement of his reason.

   1705, Samuel Clarke, Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion

   1 more example

   I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.

   1681, John Tillotson, A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr Thomas Gouge

3. countableuncountableThe state of being improved; betterment; advance
4. countableuncountableSomething which is improved

   the new edition is an improvement on the old.

   3 more examples

   The decade has seen vast improvements in techniques.

   The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.

   1712 January 22 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, 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

   Here 12...B-B3 as in Fischer-Geller is quite necessary. Black intended an improvement on this variation but received bad advice on his pre-analysis.

   1968 January, Petar Trifunovich, “The Tournament of Solidarity in Skopje, the City of Earthquakes”, in Chess Review

5. countableuncountableIncrease; growth; progress; advance.

   Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

6. countablein pluraluncountableValuable additions or betterments, for example buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.
7. countableuncountablePatent LawsA useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.