Definition
To create a new product, method, or idea that is better than an existing version of something already common or widely used.
Origins
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).
In Context
- "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson"
- "Of all the inventors to obtain patents, only a few have really built a better mousetrap."