English Explanatory Dictionary

build a better mousetrap

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To create a new product, method, or idea that is better than an existing version of something already common or widely used.

Pronunciation

en-au-build a better mousetrap.ogg

Word forms

build a better mousetrap builds a better mousetrap building a better mousetrap built a better mousetrap

Etymology

A shortening of build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Derived from the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods. (1855).

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