Verb

(practis)

(transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To repeat as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.

You should practise playing piano every day.

(intransitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To repeat an activity in this way.

If you want to speak French well, you need to practise .

(transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To perform or observe in a habitual fashion.

They gather to practise religion every Saturday.

(transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).

She practised law for forty years before retiring.

(intransitive, obsolete, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To conspire.

To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.

* Shakespeare

Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practise your severity.''

* Alexander Pope

As this advice ye practise or neglect.

To make use of; to employ.

* Massinger

In malice to this good knight's wife, I practised Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.

To teach or accustom by practice; to train.

* Landor

In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practised to love their neighbour.

Verb

(improv)

(lb) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).

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*{{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. 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.}}

(lb) To become better.

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*:“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.”

(lb) To disprove or make void; to refute.

*(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)

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

(lb) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.

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:(Chapman)

*(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)

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

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

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*(Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)

*:We shall especially honour God by improving diligently the talents which God hath committed to us.

*(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

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

*(William Blackstone) (1723-1780)

*:The court seldom fails to improve the opportunity.

*(Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)

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

*(George Washington) (1732-1799)

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