advance

verb advances · advancing · advanced · advaunce

1. To help the progress of (something); to further. 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.
2. To raise (someone) in rank or office; to prefer, to promote. 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.
3. To move or push (something) forwards, especially forcefully. Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, / That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance / Thy miscreated front athwart my way / To yonder gates?
4. To make (something) happen at an earlier time or date; to bring forward, to hasten. [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.
5. intransitive To move forwards; to approach. I advanced towards him step by step, stopping sometimes for fear of waking him.
6. To provide (money or other value) before it is due, or in expectation of some work; to lend. “I had intended to ask you to advance me a hundred pounds,” said Phineas.
7. To put forward (an idea, argument etc.); to propose. Some ne'er advance a Judgement of their own, / But catch the spreading notion of the Town […].
8. intransitive To make progress; to do well, to succeed. 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.
9. intransitive To move forward in time; to progress towards completion. I can promise you that you will feel even less humorous as the evening advances.
10. archaic, transitive To raise; to lift or elevate. The fringed Curtaines of thine eyes aduance.
11. To raise or increase (a price, rate). In February last […] bakers advanced the price of bread sold over the counter in London from 8d. to 8½d. per quartern loaf.
12. To increase (a number or amount).
13. intransitive To make a higher bid at an auction.

Similar: improve, assign

noun advances · advaunce

1. A forward move; improvement or progression. an advance in health or knowledge
2. An amount of money or credit, especially given as a loan, or paid before it is due; an advancement. Could he ask the cashier privately for an advance? No, the cashier was no good, no damn good: he wouldn't give an advance.
3. An addition to the price; rise in price or value. an advance on the prime cost of goods
4. in plural, often An opening approach or overture, now especially of an unwelcome or sexual nature. 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

adjective more advance · most advance · advaunce

1. Completed before necessary or a milestone event. He made an advance payment on the prior shipment to show good faith.
2. Preceding. The advance man came a month before the candidate.
3. Forward. The scouts found a site for an advance base.