Improvement \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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)