Noun

(en noun)

The act of improving]]; advancement or growth; [[promote, promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.

* (Robert South)

I look upon your city as the best place of improvement .

* (Hugh Blair)

Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.

* , chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.

The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.

* (Samuel Clarke)

A good improvement of his reason.

* (John Tillotson)

I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.

The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.

* (Joseph Addison)

The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.

Increase; growth; progress; advance.

* (Joseph Addison)

There is a design of publishing the history of architecture, with its several improvements and decays.

* (Robert South)

Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.

(plural): Valuable additions or betterments, as buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.

(Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.

Noun

(curiosities)

(obsolete) Careful, delicate construction; fine workmanship, delicacy of building.

* 1631 , John Smith, Advertisements , in Kupperman 1988, p. 81:

wee built a homely thing like a barne, set upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth, so also was the walls; the best of our houses of the like curiosity , but the most part farre much worse workmanship [...].

Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring.

* 1886 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde)

It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend's quarters; and he eyed the dingy, windowless structure with curiosity , and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre

* 1956 , , (The City and the Stars) , p 39:

"Certainly there is nothing wrong with Alvin's intelligence, but many of the things that should concern him seem to be a matter of complete indifference. On the other hand, he shows a morbid curiosity regarding subjects which we do not generally discuss."

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Terrie Moffitt] [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/richie-poulton et] [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/avshalom-caspi al.

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Lifelong Impact of Early Self-Control , passage=Curiosity about the power of self-control skills, which include conscientiousness, self-discipline, and perseverance, arose from recent empirical observations that preschool Head Start, an ambitious, federally funded program of special services launched in 1965 to boost the intellectual development of needy children, has failed to achieve the goal of boosting IQ scores. But the programs have unexpectedly succeeded in lowering the former pupils’ rates of teen pregnancy, school dropout, delinquency, and work absenteeism.}}

A unique or extraordinary object which arouses interest.