bettership

English

Etymology

From better + -ship. Compare West Frisian betterskip.

Noun

bettership (uncountable)

  1. betterment; improvement
    • 1818, Sherwin's Political Register - Volume 3 - Page 395:
      [] to all kinds of labour and servitude, where after experiencing degradation, contempt, and stinted allowance of food, which the unnatural spirit of aristocratic bettership engenders, they often exchange a bad state for a worse, from oppression to prostitution, []
    • 1888, Richard Mulcaster, Robert Hebert Quick, Positions - Page 186:
      Wherby it becomes the puffer vp to pride in the recluse, and the direction to disdaine, by dreaming still of bettership: []
    • 1922, The Friend, volume 95, page 591:
      Time properly brings changes, but to those of us who have shared the spiritual responsibilities of such a Committee, its experiences have contributed conspicuously of bettership in our lives.

Synonyms

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