[f. BETTER v.]
1. The action of making better or improving; amelioration, amendment, improvement.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 55. Men may … take of hem þere just dettis for beterynge of þese dettours.
1529. More, Comf. agst. Trib., I. Wks. 1156/1. For the bettering of his sinful soul.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 3. The manuring, or bettering of all barren grounds.
1690. Norris, Beatitudes (1694), I. 78. Nor … Does it tend to the bettering of others.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 124, ¶ 6. After having consulted many Oculists for the bettering of his Sight.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. viii. 86. The hope of bettering his condition animates him.
1862. Trench, Miracles, xix. 320. It was no true bettering of the disciples which they desired.
2. The process of becoming better; improvement, progress in a right direction.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xxxii. Compare them with the bettering of the time.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit., § 40 (1851), 48. O God, thou art not capable, either of bettering, or of change.
1718. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 373. Your remark upon the bettering of my style in my History.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., 191. Not they who err are damned; but who being wrong … Refuse all bettering.
3. Bettering-house, † -mansion, a reformatory.
1735. Berkeley, Querist, Wks. 1871, III. 360. Whether there are not such things in Holland as bettering houses for bringing young gentlemen to order?
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, iii. 107. If they are reckon’d only Correction and Bettering Mansions.
1854. Mrs. S. Austin, Germany, 83. Fit only for a penal colony or a bettering-house.
