improve the occasion

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English

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Verb

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

  1. To point out a moral to be learned from some event that has just occurred.
    • 1880, The Penn Monthly, volume 11, page 784:
      Then he improved the occasion to give young Finland a lecture upon the impropriety of marrying for money.
  2. (obsolete, slang) To celebrate with food or drink.
    • 1868, Malcolm Ronald Laing Meason, Turf Frauds and Turf Practices; or, Spiders and Flies, page 24:
      I told Jos. of my intentions, and he improved the occasion by eating four or five meals, and drinking at least a gallon of beer and a bottle of gin at my expense.

References

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  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary