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Improve   /ɪmprˈuv/   Listen
verb
Improve  v. t.  
1.
To disprove or make void; to refute. (Obs.) "Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another can not improve."
2.
To disapprove; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure; as, to improve negligence. (Obs.) "When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing."


Improve  v. t.  (past & past part. improved; pres. part. improving)  
1.
To make better; to increase the value or good qualities of; to ameliorate by care or cultivation; as, to improve land. "I love not to improve the honor of the living by impairing that of the dead."
2.
To use or employ to good purpose; to make productive; to turn to profitable account; to utilize; as, to improve one's time; to improve his means. "We shall especially honor God by improving diligently the talents which God hath committed to us." "A hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved." "The court seldom fails to improve the opportunity." "How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour." "Those moments were diligently improved." "True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion."
3.
To advance or increase by use; to augment or add to; said with reference to what is bad. (R.) "We all have, I fear,... not a little improved the wretched inheritance of our ancestors."
Synonyms: To better; meliorate; ameliorate; advance; heighten; mend; correct; rectify; amend; reform.


Improve  v. i.  
1.
To grow better; to advance or make progress in what is desirable; to make or show improvement; as, to improve in health. "We take care to improve in our frugality and diligence."
2.
To advance or progress in bad qualities; to grow worse. "Domitian improved in cruelty."
3.
To increase; to be enhanced; to rise in value; as, the price of cotton improves.
To improve on or To improve upon, to make useful additions or amendments to, or changes in; to bring nearer to perfection; as, to improve on the mode of tillage.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Improve" Quotes from Famous Books



... a word, I s'pose. I didn't feel that I could improve on Becky Huckleberries conversation much, ...
— Cape Cod Stories - The Old Home House • Joseph C. Lincoln
... wealthy merchant possessed several country-houses, where he kept a large number of cattle of every kind. He retired with his wife and family to one of these estates, in order to improve it under his own direction. He had the gift of understanding the language of beasts, but with this condition, that he should not, on pain of death, interpret it to any one else. And this hindered him from communicating ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous
... two minutes to explain yourself, sir; and I strongly advise you to improve the opportunity, before I put you out of ...
— Hepsey Burke • Frank Noyes Westcott
... been at work in giving a man so peaceable and inoffensive as himself two daughters of such strongly defined individuality. There was Augusta, the elder, who was what Arnfinn called "indiscriminately reformatory," and had a universal desire to improve everything, from the Government down to agricultural implements and preserve jars. As long as she was content to expend the surplus energy, which seemed to accumulate within her through the long eventless winters, upon the Zulu Mission, and other legitimate objects, the pastor ...
— Tales From Two Hemispheres • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... those in Chaucer's previous allegories, nor are they so artificial and far-fetched as to fatigue instead of stimulating the mind. Pope, who reproduced parts of the "House of Fame" in a loose paraphrase, in attempting to improve the construction of Chaucer's work, only mutilated it. As it stands, it is clear and digestible; and how many allegories, one may take leave to ask, in our own allegory-loving literature or in any other, ...
— Chaucer • Adolphus William Ward


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