approach

English Online Dictionary. What means approach‎? What does approach mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈpɹəʊt͡ʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈpɹoʊt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -əʊtʃ
• Hyphenation: ap‧proach

Etymology 1

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”)).

Verb

approach (third-person singular simple present approaches, present participle approaching, simple past and past participle approached)

1. (intransitive) To come or go near, in place or time; to move toward; to advance nearer; to draw nigh.
2. (intransitive, golf, tennis) To play an approach shot.
3. (ambitransitive, figuratively) Used intransitively, followed by to: to draw near (to someone or something); to make advances; to approximate or become almost equal.
4. (transitive, rarely intransitive) Of an immovable object or a number of such objects: to be positioned as to (notionally) appear to be moving towards (a place).
5. (transitive, also figuratively) To move toward (someone or something) in place, time, character, or value; to draw nearer to.
6. (transitive) To bring (something) near something else; to cause (something) to draw near.
7. (transitive) To attempt to make (a policy) or solve (a problem).
8. (transitive) To bring up or propose to (someone) an idea, question, request, etc.
9. (transitive, archaic, euphemistic) To have sexual intercourse with (someone).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulate
10. (transitive, military) To take approaches to (a place); to move towards (a place) by using covered roads, trenches, or other works.

Usage notes

Regarding the use of sense 5 (“to come near to (someone or something) in place, time, character, or value”) in discussing convergence in mathematical analysis, modern rigorous formulations avoid using the words approach and converge. However, the terms are used informally when rigour is not required.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English approche (“approach, arrival”), from approchen, aprochen (“to come or go near, approach; to adjoin, be close by; to enter (someone’s) presence; to be or become involved; to reach (a certain state); to arrive; to befall, happen to; to become similar to, resemble; to be a match for (someone)”); see etymology 1.

Noun

approach (plural approaches)

1. (also figuratively) An act of drawing near in place or time; an advancing or coming near.
2. An act of coming near in character or value; an approximation.
3. (also figuratively) An avenue, passage, or way by which a building or place can be approached; an access.
   1. (climbing) A path taken to reach the climbing area, for example, from a car park, road, etc.
4. (figuratively) A manner of making (a policy) or solving (a problem, etc.).
5. (archaic) An opportunity of drawing near; access.
6. (aviation, also attributively) The way an aircraft comes in to land at an airport.
   1. A specific procedure used for approaching and landing at an airport.

7. (bowling) The area before the lane in which a bowler may stand or run up before bowling the ball.
8. (golf, tennis) Ellipsis of approach shot.

Hyponyms

(aviation):

• instrument approach
• missed approach
• nonprecision approach
• precision approach
• visual approach

Derived terms

Collocations

Translations

References

Further reading

• approach (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “approach”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Portuguese

Noun

approach m (plural approaches)

1. approach (a manner in which a problem is solved or policy is made)

   Synonym: abordagem