Etymology From Anglo-Norman emprouwer, from Old French en- + prou (“profit”), from Vulgar Latin prode (“advantageous, profitable”).
1
To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
Painting the woodwork will improve this house.
Buying more servers would improve performance.
1 more example
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:
2
To become better.
I have improved since taking the tablets.
The error messages have improved since the last version, when they were incomprehensible.
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“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, →OCLC, page 41:
3
Dated To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
to improve one's time; to improve his means
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 usa. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number)”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC:
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[A] hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved […]1711 July 17 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, 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, →OCLC, page 96:
How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.1715, Isaac Watts, Against Idleness and Mischief:
[T]he court has alſo an opportunity, which it ſeldom fails to improve, […]1768, William Blackstone, “Of Judgment, and It’s Incidents”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 392:
March 7, 1778, George Washington, letter True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.
One ſayth this and a nother that / but can not agre. Nether can any of them make ſo ſtronge a reaſon vvhich a nother can not improve.1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), William Tyndale, “[Of the Sacramentes.] Of Order.”, in The Obediẽce of a Christen Man […], [Antwerp]: [Johannes Hoochstraten], →OCLC, folios xciij, recto – xciij, verso:
2
Obsolete To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
[W]hen he reherſed his preachinge and his doynges vnto the hye Apoſtles / they coulde improve no thinge […]1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), William Tyndale, “The .IIIJ. Senses of yͤ Scripture”, in The Obediẽce of a Christen Man […], [Antwerp]: [Johannes Hoochstraten], →OCLC, folio cxlix, recto:
You would improve his negligence, too oft to ease retir’d: […][1611?], Homer, “Book X”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC, page 218: