Definition of "improvement"

I look upon your city as […] the best place of improvement.

November 9, 1662, Robert South, Of the Creation of Man in the Image of God

Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.

1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. […] Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.

2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

good improvement of his reason.

1705, Samuel Clarke, Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion

I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.

1681, John Tillotson, A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr Thomas Gouge

The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.

1712 January 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, January 12, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 273; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853

Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.

1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727