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

Capable of being disciplined or improved by instruction and training.

To improve by corrective and penal methods; to chastise; to correct. Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly Shak.

[Colloq.] Some, who have a taste for good living, have many harmless arts, by which they improve their banquet, and innocent dodges, if we may be permitted to use an excellent phrase that has become vernacular since the appearance of the last dictionaries. Thackeray.

The process of redistilling spirits, to improve the strength and flavor. Doubling a cape, promontory, etc. (Naut.), sailing around or passing beyond a cape, promontory, etc.

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

It is sometimes called the Troughton level, from the name of the inventor, and a variety improved by one Gavatt is known as the Gavatt level.

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.

To instruct and improve, especially in moral and religious knowledge; to teach. It does not appear probable that our dispute [about miracles] would either edify or enlighten the public. Gibbon.

To perfect with painstaking; to improve or refine with labor and study, or by successive operations; as, to elaborate a painting or a literary work. The sap is . . . still more elaborated and exalted as it circulates through the vessels of the plant. Arbuthnot.

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.