Part 111

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. 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.]

Ad*van"tage*a*ble (&?;), a. Advantageous. [Obs.]

Ad`van*ta"geous (&?;), a. [F. avantageux, fr. avantage.] Being of advantage; conferring advantage; gainful; profitable; useful; beneficial; as, an advantageous position; trade is advantageous to a nation.

Advabtageous comparison with any other country. Prescott.

You see . . . of what use a good reputation is, and how swift and advantageous a harbinger it is, wherever one goes. Chesterfield.

Ad`van*ta"geous*ly, adv. Profitably; with advantage.

Ad`van*ta"geous*ness, n. Profitableness.

Ad*vene" (&?;), v. i. [L. advenire; ad + venire to come: cf. F. avenir, advenir. See Come.] To accede, or come (to); to be added to something or become a part of it, though not essential. [R.]

Where no act of the will advenes as a coefficient. Coleridge.

Ad*ven"ient (&?;), a. [L. adviens, p. pr.] Coming from outward causes; superadded. [Obs.]

Ad`vent (&?;), n. [L. adventus, fr. advenire, adventum: cf. F. avent. See Advene.] 1. (Eccl.) The period including the four Sundays before Christmas.

Advent Sunday (Eccl.), the first Sunday in the season of Advent, being always the nearest Sunday to the feast of St. Andrew (Now. 30). Shipley.

2. The first or the expected second coming of Christ.

3. Coming; any important arrival; approach.

Death's dreadful advent. Young.

Expecting still his advent home. Tennyson.

Ad"vent*ist (&?;), n. One of a religious body, embracing several branches, who look for the proximate personal coming of Christ; -- called also Second Adventists. Schaff-Herzog Encyc.