improveとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Anglo-Norman emprouwer, from Old French en- + prou (“profit”), from Vulgar Latin prode (“advantageous, profitable”).

発音

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹuːv/
• 韻: -uːv

動詞

improve (三人称単数 現在形 improves, 現在分詞 improving, 過去形および過去分詞形 improved)

1. (transitive) 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.

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

     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.

2. (intransitive) To become better.

   I have improved since taking the tablets.

   The error messages have improved since the last version, when they were incomprehensible.

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:

     “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.”

3. (obsolete) To disprove or make void; to refute.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

     Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another cannot improve.

4. (obsolete) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
   • [1611?], Homer, “Book X”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, OCLC 614803194; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], volume I, new edition, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, OCLC 987451361:

     You would improve his negligence, too oft to ease retired.

   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

     When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing.

5. (dated) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.

   to improve one's time;  to improve his means

   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Reward of Honouring God (sermon)

     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

   • 1711 July 18, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele, “SATURDAY, July 7, 1711 [Julian calendar]”, 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 191120697:

     a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved

   • 1765, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford: […] Clarendon Press, OCLC 65350522:

     the court has also an opportunity, which it seldom fails to improve.

   • 1715, Isaac Watts, Against Idleness and Mischief

     How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.

   • March 7, 1778, George Washington, letter

     True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.

同意語

• (to make something better): ameliorate, better, batten, enhance; See also Thesaurus:improve

反意語

• (to make something worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:aggravate
• (to become worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:worsen

派生語

• improvement
• improver
• improving