different between improve vs mushroom

English

Alternative forms

• emprove (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprouwer, from Old French en- + prou (“profit”), from Vulgar Latin prode (“advantageous, profitable”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?p?u?v/
• Rhymes: -u?v

Verb

improve (third-person singular simple present improves, present participle improving, simple past and past participle improved)

1. (transitive) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
2. (intransitive) To become better.

   • “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.”

3. (obsolete) To disprove or make void; to refute.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

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

4. (obsolete) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
   • 1528, William Tyndale, The Obedience of a Christian Man

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

5. (dated) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Reward of Honouring God (sermon)

     We shall especially honour God, by discharging faithfully those offices which God hath entrusted us with: by improving diligently those talents which God hath committed to us

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

   • the court has also an opportunity, which it seldom fails to improve.

   • 1715, Isaac Watts, Against Idleness and Mischief

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

   • March 7, 1778, George Washington, letter

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

Synonyms

• (to make something better): ameliorate, better, batten, enhance; See also Thesaurus:improve

Antonyms

• (to make something worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:aggravate
• (to become worse): deteriorate, worsen; See also Thesaurus:worsen

Derived terms

• improvement
• improver
• improving

Translations

Further reading

• "improve" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 160.

English

Etymology

From Middle English musheron, musseron, from Anglo-Norman musherum, moscheron, from Old French moisseron, of obscure origin: probably derived from Old French mosse, moise (“moss”), as the use first applied to a type of fungus which grows in moss, from Frankish *mosa (“moss”) or Old Dutch mosa (“moss”), akin to Old High German mos (“moss, bog”), Old High German mios (“moss, mire”), Old English m?os (“moss”), Old English m?s (“bog, marsh”), Old Norse mosi (“moss”), Old Norse myrr (“bog, mire”), from Proto-Germanic *mus?, *musô, *miuziz (“mosses, bog”), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (“mosses, mold, mildew”). Displaced native Old English swamm. More at mire. Alternatively, the Old French may be of pre-Roman origin.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?m????u?m/, /?m?????m/
• Hyphenation: mush?room

Noun

mushroom (plural mushrooms)

1. Any of the fleshy fruiting bodies of fungi typically produced above ground on soil or on their food sources (such as decaying wood).

   Synonyms: (archaic) mushrump, shroom

2. A fungus producing such fruiting bodies.
3. Champignon or Agaricus bisporus, the mushroom species most commonly used in cooking.
4. Any of the mushroom-shaped pegs in bar billiards.
5. (architecture) A concrete column with a thickened portion at the top, used to support a slab.
6. (obsolete, figuratively) One who rises suddenly from a low condition in life; an upstart.

   • upstarts […] call in reproach mushrooms

7. (figuratively) Something that grows very quickly or seems to appear suddenly.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Adjective

mushroom (not comparable)

1. Having characteristics like those of a mushroom, for example in shape or appearance, speed of growth, or texture.

Translations

Verb

mushroom (third-person singular simple present mushrooms, present participle mushrooming, simple past and past participle mushroomed)

1. (intransitive) To grow quickly to a large size.
2. To gather mushrooms.

3. To form the shape of a mushroom.
   • 2001, James E. Duffy, I-Car Professional Automotive Collision Repair (page 173)

     Excessive spot weld time may cause the electrode tips to mushroom, resulting in no focus of current and a weak weld.

   1. (ballistics) Of a bullet: to form the shape of a mushroom when striking a soft target.

Translations