Im*prove"ment (?), n.
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.
I look upon your city as
the best place of improvement.
South. Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.
Blair. 2. The act of making
profitable use or applicaton 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. "A good improvement of his reason." S. Clarke.
I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.
Tillotson. 3. The
state of being improved; betterment;
advance; also, that which is
improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.
The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few
others, are improvements on
the Greek poet.
Addison.
4. Increase; growth; progress; advance.
There is a design of publishing the history of architecture, with its several improvements and
decays.
Addison. Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.
South. 5. pl. 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. Kent.
Hear it pronounced