Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Advantage?

\Ad*van"tage\ (?; 61, 48), n. [OE. avantage, avauntage, F. avantage, fr. avant before. See {Advance}, and cf. {Vantage}.] 1. Any condition, circumstance, opportunity, or means, particularly favorable to success, or to any desired end; benefit; as, the enemy had the advantage of a more elevated position. Give me advantage of some brief discourse. --Shak. The advantages of a close alliance. --Macaulay. 2. Superiority; mastery; -- with of or over. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us. --2 Cor. ii. 11. 3. Superiority of state, or that which gives it; benefit; gain; profit; as, the advantage of a good constitution. 4. Interest of money; increase; overplus (as the thirteenth in the baker's dozen). [Obs.] And with advantage means to pay thy love. --Shak. {Advantage ground}, vantage ground. [R.] --Clarendon. {To have the advantage of} (any one), to have a personal knowledge of one who does not have a reciprocal knowledge. ``You have the advantage of me; I don't remember ever to have had the honor.'' --Sheridan. {To take advantage of}, to profit by; (often used in a bad sense) to overreach, to outwit. Syn: {Advantage}, {Advantageous}, {Benefit}, {Beneficial}. Usage: We speak of a thing as a benefit, or as beneficial, when it is simply productive of good; as, the benefits of early discipline; the beneficial effects of adversity. We speak of a thing as an advantage, or as advantageous, when it affords us the means of getting forward, and places us on a ``vantage ground'' for further effort. Hence, there is a difference between the benefits and the advantages of early education; between a beneficial and an advantageous investment of money.
\Ad*van"tage\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Advantaged}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Advantaging}.] [F. avantager, fr. avantage. See {Advance}.] To give an advantage to; to further; to promote; to benefit; to profit. The truth is, the archbishop's own stiffness and averseness to comply with the court designs, advantaged his adversaries against him. --Fuller. What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? --Luke ix. 25. {To advantage one's self of}, to avail one's self of. [Obs.]