improve
Definitions
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LATEST STREET IMPROVEMENT -
WordNet 3.6
- v improve get better "The weather improved toward evening"
- v improve to make better "The editor improved the manuscript with his changes"
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Additional illustrations & photos:
THE WOMAN'S HOME IMPROVEMENT CLUB AT THE SETTLEMENT
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Interesting fact: Sailors once thought that wearing a gold earring would improve their eyesight
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- Improve To advance or increase by use; to augment or add to; -- said with reference to what is bad. "We all have, I fear, . . . not a little improved the wretched inheritance of our ancestors."
- Improve To advance or progress in bad qualities; to grow worse. "Domitian improved in cruelty."
- Improve To disapprove; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure; as, to improve negligence. "When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing."
- Improve To disprove or make void; to refute. "Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another can not improve ."
- Improve 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."
- Improve To increase; to be enhanced; to rise in value; as, the price of cotton improves .
- Improve 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."
- Improve 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."
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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Interesting fact: Studies indicate that surgeons who listen to music while they operate improve in their performance
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- improve To make better; ameliorate the condition of; increase in value, excellence, capability, estimation, or the like; bring into a better, higher, more desirable, or more profitable state: as, to improve the mind by study; to improve the breeds of animals; to improve land by careful tillage.
- improve To turn to advantage or account; use profitably; make use of: as, to improve an opportunity; to improve the occasion.
- improve To increase in force or amount; intensify in any respect.
- improve To grow better in any way; become more excellent or more favorable; advance in goodness, knowledge, wisdom, amount, value, etc.: as, his health is improving; the price of cotton improves daily.
- improve To increase; grow.
- improve To approve; prove; test.
- improve To disapprove; censure; blame.
- improve To disprove; prove false; refute.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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Interesting fact: The ZIP in "ZIP code" means Zoning Improvement Plan.
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- v.t Improve im-prōōv′ to make better: to advance in value or excellence: to correct: to employ to good purpose
- v.i Improve to grow better: to make progress: to increase: to rise (as prices)
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Quotations
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“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” -
“Had I been present at the creation of the world I would have proposed some improvements.” -
“Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.” -
“Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve.” -
“The best performance improvement is the transition from the nonworking state to the working state.”
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“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Pref. in-, in + prove, in approve., See Approve Prove.
Usage
In literature:
The utensils of husbandry and of cookery were improved.
"A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon" by John Lord
Surprising as it may seem, most of these improvements were made by foreigners.
"All Afloat" by William Wood
The next most important improvement was the screw-blade propeller, placed astern.
"Commercial Geography" by Jacques W. Redway
There are many recent improvements here, but I observe none of absorbing interest.
"Glances at Europe" by Horace Greeley
The performance of the Iraqi Army could also be significantly improved if it had improved equipment.
"The Iraq Study Group Report" by United States Institute for Peace
It would be very difficult indeed to improve upon them.
"The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete" by John Forster
I wish we had not lost so much time in improving our personal knowledge of each other.
"The Letters of Charles Dickens" by Charles Dickens
To these possible improvements, he devoted himself for years.
"James Watt" by Andrew Carnegie
In this way his mind was much improved, so that he began to be noticed in the office as a boy of great promise.
"The Printer Boy." by William M. Thayer
The permanent improvement of the appetite is relative.
"The Electric Bath" by George M. Schweig
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In poetry:
Memory need not improve
On your truth with necromancy
Of a fond heart, as if love
Ever traded fact for fancy.
Daylight lends sufficient glow
As you leave yet do not go.
On your truth with necromancy
Of a fond heart, as if love
Ever traded fact for fancy.
Daylight lends sufficient glow
As you leave yet do not go.
"Love’s Realism" by Vassar Miller
Be thou to all thy family a light —
A light, which shall to their improvement shine —
Be thou to them a pattern fair and bright,
In all that's honest, moral, and divine.
A light, which shall to their improvement shine —
Be thou to them a pattern fair and bright,
In all that's honest, moral, and divine.
"Advice To Ev'ry Master Of A Family, To Govern His House In A Religious Manner" by Rees Prichard
In transport wrapt may each fond parent see
Through rising years those virtues still improve,
While every tender care now felt for thee,
Thy heart repays with never-ceasing love.
Through rising years those virtues still improve,
While every tender care now felt for thee,
Thy heart repays with never-ceasing love.
"To Miss ∗∗∗∗," by Jane Bowdler
Thy Heart, O Lyttleton, shall be my Guide,
It's Fire shall warm me, and it's Worth improve,
Thy Heart, above all Envy, and all Pride,
Firm as Man's Sense, and soft as Woman's Love.
It's Fire shall warm me, and it's Worth improve,
Thy Heart, above all Envy, and all Pride,
Firm as Man's Sense, and soft as Woman's Love.
"Elegy XIV: To Delia" by James Hammond
Happy! when we but seek to endure
A little pain, then find a cure
By double joy requited;
For friendship, like a severed bone, Improves and joins a stronger tone
When amply reunited.
A little pain, then find a cure
By double joy requited;
For friendship, like a severed bone, Improves and joins a stronger tone
When amply reunited.
"Apology to Delia" by William Cowper
Yes! weave the gay garland! each moment improve!
Youth's pleasures like Spring fleet away!--
Life has its soft season -- that season is Love.
-- Ah! taste its fond joys while 'tis May.
Youth's pleasures like Spring fleet away!--
Life has its soft season -- that season is Love.
-- Ah! taste its fond joys while 'tis May.
"May-Day ; Or, The Discovery. A Pastoral. In The Manner of Cunningham" by Hector MacNeill
In news:
Béarnaise (thinned by liquid from the oysters) replaces the milk, which is one big, rich improvement right there.
The increased use of lightweight metal can help improve fuel economy and performance.
The Fischer AluLite connectors improve efficiency in product development by saving weight.
New, improved restaurants hit Chattanooga market.
The Bulldogs won for the sixth straight time this season improving to 6-1, 4-0 MIAA.
Complications, such as bleeding, shock, and infection, can occur when a body part has been amputated , but the long-term outcome for amputees has improved with advancements in early emergency treatment.
Home-Improvement Advice from Michael Dick of Larchmont, NY.
Implementing educational improvements through data analysis .
MySQL Adds Query Analyzer Tool to Lineup to Improve Database Performance.
A great tool to improve education.
Things are looking up, but you can still improve them by a bit more.
Improved surveying techniques improve a hospital's patient centricity.
A leader in health care quality improvement, the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement® (PCPI®) is a national, physician-led program dedicated to enhancing quality and patient safety.
The new bike path on the Old Glenn, improved parking area, improved baseball facilities all have added to the draw of this facility.
Quality professional development is essential to improving public education and the teaching profession CTA has a number of events designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning and to enhance your livelihood.
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In science:
We will then introduce two immediate improvements (symbolic reduction of reducible topologies and loop-by-loop integration), and also report on improvements on the reduction algorithm we use.
Methods for the Reduction of Three-Loop QCD Form Factors
Any efficiency improvement in the rational simplex can thus translate into an improvement to the integer or mixed linear decision procedure.
On using floating-point computations to help an exact linear arithmetic decision procedure
We used a tree level Symanzik improved gauge action to suppress lattice artifacts, and Kogut-Susskind (staggered) fermions with the Naik improvement scheme, that effectively extends the Symanzik improvement to the matter content.
Evidence for a conformal phase in SU(N) gauge theories
This improvement arises primarily because of the improved determination of e and ω through the addition of the JHKS light curves, thus improving the determination of the time of periastron passage.
Near-Infrared Light Curves of the Brown Dwarf Eclipsing Binary 2MASS J05352184-0546085: Can Spots Explain the Temperature Reversal?
The small fractional improvement in execution time and lower performance relative to peak of the GP G = 2, between the two designs on the 8800 models, does not match the naive estimate of potential improvement from memory bandwidth alone.
A GPU based real-time software correlation system for the Murchison Widefield Array prototype
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