approach
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: golf
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Etymology: From Middle English aprochen, borrowed from Old French aprochier (modern French approcher), from Late Latin appropiāre, a verb based on Latin prope (“near”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (a variant of *per- (“before, in front; first”)) + *-kʷe (“suffix forming distributives from interrogatives”)).
Inflected forms:
form: approaches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: approaching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: approached
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: approached
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: To come or go near, in place or time; to move toward; to advance nearer; to draw nigh.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: She approached the door cautiously.
We were approached by a stranger asking for directions.
The deadline is fast approaching.
Approach thou beacon [the Sun] to this vnder gloabe,
 That by thy comfortable beames I may
 Peruſe this letter, nothing almoſt ſees my wracke
 But miſerie.
And if ſo be that the kings wrath ariſe, and hee ſay vnto thee, wherefore approched ye ſo nigh vnto the city when yee did fight? Knew yee not that they would ſhoot from the wall?
And let vs conſider one another to prouoke vnto loue, and to good workes: Not forſaking the aſſembling of ourſelues together, as the manner of ſome is: but exhorting one another, and ſo much the more, as ye ſee the day approching.
It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. When they were within two paces of each other, Marley's Ghost held up its hand, warning him to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped.
The descent continues, still more steeply to Dundee (Tay Bridge), and approaching from the bridge itself this sharp descent gives the curious appearance that the station is below the level of the firth.
gloss: To play an approach shot.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: Used intransitively, followed by to: to draw near (to someone or something); to make advances; to approximate or become almost equal.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
figuratively
examples: He approaches to the character of the ablest statesman.
The great source, as it appears to me, of the power of the Divine Comedy [by Dante Alighieri], is the strong belief with which the story seems to be told. In this respect, the only books which approach to its excellence are Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe.
Without these incentives to industry the Norwegian would be like the Laplander, without industry and civilisation; and the nearer he approaches to the beau idéal of those political economists—to the state of being without a taste for these foreign and expensive luxuries—the nearer he approaches to the condition of the Laplander in the comforts and enjoyments of life.
gloss: Of an immovable object or a number of such objects: to be positioned as to (notionally) appear to be moving towards (a place).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
rare
transitive
examples: As we drove along the driveway, the trees approaching the house seemed more eerie.
[T]here appears a seeming mount, made up of trees rising one higher than another, in proportion as they approach the centre.
gloss: To move toward (someone or something) in place, time, character, or value; to draw nearer to.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: “Would counsel please approach the bench?” asked the judge.
He approached the age of manhood.
Approch the Chamber, and deſtroy your ſight
 With a new Gorgon.
He [Empedocles] was an admirable Poet, and thought even to have approached Homer, in a Poem he writ of Natural Philoſophy; [...]
[…] I ſtuck all the Ground without my Wall, for a great way every way, as full with Stakes or Sticks of the Osier-like Wood, which I found ſo apt to grow, as they could well ſtand; inſomuch, that I believe I might ſet in near twenty thouſand of them, leaving a pretty large Space between them and my Wall, that I might have room to ſee an Enemy, and they might have no ſhelter from the young Trees, if they attempted to approach my outer Wall.
When one approaches the nest of this species, the male exhibits the greatest anxiety respecting its safety, passes and repasses, fluttering and snapping its bill within a few feet, as if determined to repel the intruder.
Mr. Brownlow adopted Oliver as his own son, and removing with him and the old housekeeper to within a mile of the parsonage house, where his dear friends resided, he gratified the only remaining wish of Oliver's warm and earnest heart, and thus linked together a little society, whose condition approached as nearly to one of perfect happiness as can ever be known in this changing world.
The secular cooling that must some day overtake our planet has already gone far indeed with our neighbour [Mars]. Its physical condition is still largely a mystery, but we know now that even in its equatorial region the mid-day temperature barely approaches that of our coldest winter.
If a variable v takes on successively a series of values that approach nearer and nearer to a constant value l in such a manner that #124;v-l#124; [Footnote: To be read the numerical value of the difference between v and l] becomes and remains less than any assigned arbitrarily small positive quantity, then v is said to approach the limit l, or to converge to the limit l. Symbolically this is written #92;operatorname#123;limit#125;v#61;l.
gloss: To bring (something) near something else; to cause (something) to draw near.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: "My story is not long," said the artist; "but your honour had better sit while you listen to it." So saying, he approached to the fire a three-footed stool, and took another himself, […]
gloss: Used when defining limits, preceded by as: To become arbitrarily close to some value, be it a number, vector or infinity and have an effect on another value.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To attempt to make (a policy) or solve (a problem).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Mr. Moonlight Quill, mysterious, exotic, and oriental in temperament was, nevertheless, a man of decision. And it was with decision that he approached the problem of his wrecked shop.
gloss: To bring up or propose to (someone) an idea, question, request, etc.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: "Why bother publishing my conversations. It has not helped you, and it is not going to help anybody else", said U. G. when I approached him with the idea of publishing excerpts from his conversations with the constant stream of people who go to visit him.
gloss: To have sexual intercourse with (someone).
pos: verb
tags: archaic
euphemistic
transitive
examples: None of you ſhall approche to any that is neere of kinne to him, to vncouer their nakedneſſe: I am the Lord.
gloss: To take approaches to (a place); to move towards (a place) by using covered roads, trenches, or other works.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Derived words: approachability
approachable
approachableness
approacher
approaching
approachless
approachment
reapproach
unapproachability
unapproachable
unapproachableness
unapproachably
unapproached
unapproaching
Translations: