Definition of "advance"

advance

/ədˈvɑːns/

verb
third-person singular simple present advances, present participle advancing, simple past and past participle advanced
1. To promote or advantage.
  1. To help the progress of (something); to further.
    Quotations
    Some see it as in effect the end of the Syrian uprising that began with peaceful protests against Assad’s police state in 2011, with opposition fighters working to advance Turkey’s interests at the expense of the revolution’s goals.
    2018 January 26, Kareem Shaheen, The Guardian‎
  2. To raise (someone) in rank or office; to prefer, to promote.
    Quotations
    After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.
    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Esther 3:1
    This, however, was in time evaded by the monarchs, who advanced certain of their own retainers to a level with the ancient peers of the land […]
    1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers’ Company; John B. Russell
2. To move forward in space or time.
  1. To move or push (something) forwards, especially forcefully.
    Quotations
    Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, / That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance / Thy miscreated front athwart my way / To yonder gates?
    1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  2. To make (something) happen at an earlier time or date; to bring forward, to hasten.
    Quotations
    [S]in and sorrow it were, considering the hardships of this noble and gallant knight, no whit mentioning or weighing those we ourselves have endured, if we were now either to advance or retard the hour of refection beyond the time when the viands are fit to be set before us.
    1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], page 95
  3. (intransitive) To move forwards; to approach.
    Quotations
    I advanced towards him step by step, stopping sometimes for fear of waking him.
    1829, Marchioness of Lemington, Rosina, or the Virtuous Country Maid, Ninth ed.
    This army recaptured Wu-chʻang, on the right bank of the Yangtze, in 1854, reached Chen-chiang four years later, advanced to Chiu-chiang and threatened Nanking.
    2003, C.J. Shane, editor, China (The History of Nations)‎, Greenhaven Press, page 67
  4. To provide (money or other value) before it is due, or in expectation of some work; to lend.
    Quotations
    “I had intended to ask you to advance me a hundred pounds,” said Phineas.
    1869, Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn
    On the urgent representations of several parties of the first importance in the City of London, the bank advanced 120,000l. to the Governor and Company of the Copper Miners […].
    1871, James William Gilbart, The Principles and Practice of Banking
  5. To put forward (an idea, argument etc.); to propose.
    Quotations
    Some ne'er advance a Judgement of their own, / But catch the spreading notion of the Town […] .
    1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W. Lewis […], published 1711
  6. (intransitive) To make progress; to do well, to succeed.
    Quotations
    Earlier the caller said men were more likely to be in senior positions. Clegg says that's partly because the current maternity leave arrangements make it difficult for women to advance in the workplace.
    2014 April 24, Andrew Sparrow, The Guardian‎
  7. (intransitive) To move forward in time; to progress towards completion.
    Quotations
    I can promise you that you will feel even less humorous as the evening advances.
    1927, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes
3. To raise, be raised.
  1. (transitive, now archaic) To raise; to lift or elevate.
    Quotations
    The fringed Curtaines of thine eyes aduance.
    1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]
  2. To raise or increase (a price, rate).
    Quotations
    In February last […] bakers advanced the price of bread sold over the counter in London from 8d. to 8½d. per quartern loaf.
    1924 July 16, The Times
  3. To increase (a number or amount).
  4. (intransitive) To make a higher bid at an auction.
noun
plural advances
1. A forward move; improvement or progression.
2. An amount of money or credit, especially given as a loan, or paid before it is due; an advancement.
  Quotations
  Could he ask the cashier privately for an advance? No, the cashier was no good, no damn good: he wouldn't give an advance.
  1914 June, James Joyce, “Counterparts”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards
  I shall, with pleasure, make the necessary advances.
  1780, John Jay, letter dated November 21
3. An addition to the price; rise in price or value.
4. (often in the plural) An opening approach or overture, now especially of an unwelcome or sexual nature.
  Quotations
  For, if it were of any use to recall matters of fact, what is more notorious, than that prince's applying himself first to the church of England? and upon their refusal to fall in with his measures, making the like advances to the dissenters of all kinds, who readily and almost universally complied with him
  1708, Jonathan Swift, The Sentiments of a Church of England Man with Respect to Religion and Government
  As the sun fell, so did our spirits. I had tried to make advances to the girl again; but she would have none of me, and so I was not only thirsty but otherwise sad and downhearted.
  1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp.; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927,
  I felt vaguely he was a sneak, and remained quite unmollified by advances on his side, which, in a boy's barbarous fashion, unless it suited me to be magnanimous, I haughtily ignored.
  1923, Walter de la Mare, Seaton's Aunt
  [A]nd Rosamund though quite a genteelly brought up young lady had responded to his advances by slapping his face.
  1945, Tom Ronan, Strangers on the Ophir, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 59
adjective
comparative more advance, superlative most advance
1. Completed before necessary or a milestone event.
2. Preceding.
3. Forward.

Definition of "advance"

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