improve
English
Alternative forms
- emprove (obsolete)
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman emprouwer, from Old French en- + prou (“profit”), from Vulgar Latin prode (“advantageous, profitable”).
Pronunciation
Verb
improve (third-person singular simple present improves, present participle improving, simple past and past participle improved)
- (transitive) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
- Painting the woodwork will improve this house.
- Buying more servers would improve performance.
- 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:
- Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
- (intransitive) To become better.
- I have improved since taking the tablets.
- The error messages have improved since the last version, when they were incomprehensible.
- 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
- (obsolete) To disprove or make void; to refute.
- 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man
- Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another cannot improve.
- 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man
- (obsolete) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
- [1611?], Homer, “The Tenth Booke of Homers Iliads”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC:
- You would improve his negligence, too oft to ease retired.
- 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man
- When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing.
- (dated) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
- to improve one's time; to improve his means
- Template:RQ:Barrow Sermon
- We shall especially honour God, by discharging faithfully those offices which God hath entrusted us with: by improving diligently those talents which God hath committed to us
- 1711 July 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, July 7, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 111; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
- The spelling has been modernized.
- a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved
- 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
- the court has also an opportunity, which it seldom fails to improve.
- Template:RQ:Watts Against Idleness and Mischief
- How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.
- March 7, 1778, George Washington, letter
- True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.
Synonyms
- (to make something better): ameliorate, better, batten, enhance; See also Thesaurus:improve
Antonyms
- (to make something worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:aggravate
- (to become worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:worsen
Derived terms
Translations
to make something better
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to become better
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further reading
- "improve" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 160.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English 2-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/uːv
- Rhymes:English/uːv/2 syllables
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