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discourage. "To damp your tender hopes." Akenside. Usury dulls and damps all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug. Bacon. How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word! Sir J. Lubbock. The failure of his enterprise damped the spirit o…

ng; discussion. Debating society or club, a society or club for the purpose of debate and improvement in extemporaneous speaking.

e. A general custom of using oxen for all sort of draught would be, perhaps, the greatest improvement. Sir W. Temple.

building up, especially in a moral or spiritual sense; moral, intellectual, or spiritual improvement; instruction. The assured edification of his church. Bp. Hall. Out of these magazines I shall supply the town with what may tend to their edification. Addison.

The act or process of producing or refining with labor; improvement by successive operations; refinement.

he act of altering for the better, or correcting what is erroneous or faulty; correction; improvement. "He lies in his sin without repentance or emendation." Jer. Taylor.

s. It has charge of the construction of fortifications for land and seacoast defense, the improvement of rivers and harbors, the construction of lighthouses, etc., and, in time of war, supervises the engineering operations of the armies in the field.

The act of making rich, or that which enriches; increase of value by improvements, embellishment, etc.; decoration; embellishment.

Exertion for the sake of training or improvement whether physical, intellectual, or moral; practice to acquire skill, knowledge, virtue, perfectness, grace, etc. "Desire of knightly exercise." Spenser. An exercise of the eyes and memory. Locke.

derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc. -- Floating dock. (Naut.) See under Dock. -- Floating harbor, a breakwater of cages or booms, anchored and fastened together, and used as a protection to ships riding at anchor to leeward. Knight. -- Floating…

ccelerate; to quicken; to hasten; as, to forward the growth of a plant; to forward one in improvement.

A machine used in making paper; -- so named from an early inventor of improvements in this class of machinery.

f poles, filled with stones and sunk, to assist in forming a bar dyke, etc., as in harbor improvement.

A structure of gabions sunk in lines, as a core for a sand bar in harbor improvements.

Capable of being improved; susceptible of improvement; admitting of being made better; capable of cultivation, or of being advanced in good qualities. Man is accommodated with moral principles, improvable by the exercise of his faculties. Sir M. Hale. I have a fine spread of improvable lands. Addison.…

To grow better; to advance or make progress in what is desirable; to make or show improvement; as, to improve in health. We take care to improve in our frugality and diligence. Atterbury.

ov"ing*ly, adv. Improving lease (Scots Law), an extend lease to induce the tenant to make improvements on the premises.

mind; the infusion of ardor or zeal. Our language has received innumerable elegancies and improvements from that infusion of Hebraisms. Addison.

soning, impulse by which an animal is guided to the performance of any action, without of improvement in the method. The resemblance between what originally was a habit, and an instinct becomes so close as not to be distinguished. Darwin.

strictly attentive; bent; -- said of the mind, thoughts, etc.; as, a mind intent on self-improvement.