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.