Definition of "improve"
improve
verb
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).
Quotations
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.
2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70
(intransitive) To become better.
Quotations
“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.”
1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, page 41
(obsolete) To disprove or make void; to refute.
Quotations
One ſayth thys and a nother that, but can not agre. Nether cã any of them make ſo ſtrong a reaſon vvhych a nother can not improue.
1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), Willyam Tyndale [i.e., William Tyndale], The Obedience of [a] Christen Man, […], [London: […] Thomas Ranalde and Wyllyam Hyll, and are to be solde […] by Rychard Iugge […]], published , folios xciij, recto – xciij, verso
(obsolete) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
Quotations
[…] when he reherſed his preachinge and his doynges vnto the hye Apoſtles / they coulde improve no thinge […]
1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), Willyam Tyndale [i.e., William Tyndale], “Of the Sacramentes”, in The Obedience of [a] Christen Man, […], [London: […] Thomas Ranalde and Wyllyam Hyll, and are to be solde […] by Rychard Iugge […]], published , folio c, recto
You would improve his negligence, too oft to ease retir’d: […]The spelling has been modernized.
, Homer, “Book X”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, page 218
(dated) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
Quotations
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
a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). The Reward of Honouring God”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831
[A] hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved […]
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, page 96