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nd (Naut.), to keep the ship as near the wind as possible. -- To touch up, to repair; to improve by touches or emendation.

Continued or protracted duration; length; extent. "Improved by tract of time." Milton.

An instrument for trepanning, being an improvement on the trepan. It is a circular or cylindrical saw, with a handle like that of a gimlet, and a little sharp perforator called the center pin.

urn the corner, to pass the critical stage; to get by the worst point; hence, to begin to improve, or to succeed. -- To turn the die or dice, to change fortune. -- To turn the edge or point of, to bend over the edge or point of so as to make dull; to blunt. -- To turn the head or brain of, to make giddy, wild, insan…

Want of proficiency or improvement. Bp. Hall.

rofitable; advantageous; as, vessels and instruments useful in a family; books useful for improvement; useful knowledge; useful arts. To what can I useful! Milton.

Shak. Certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins. Bacon. Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein. Waller.

I have time and space." Chaucer. Use your memory; you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement, while you take care not to overload it. I. Watts.

Abounding in whin, gorse, or furze. A fine, large, whinny, . . . unimproved common. Sterne.

grow or become worse. De Quincey. Indifferent health, which seemed rather to worsen than improve. Carlyle.