| / English Dictionary |
APPROACHING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of drawing spatially closer to something
Example:
the hunter's approach scattered the geese
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("approaching" is a kind of...):
motion; move; movement (the act of changing location from one place to another)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "approaching"):
access (the act of approaching or entering)
closing; closure (approaching a particular destination; a coming closer; a narrowing of a gap)
landing approach (the approach to a landing field by an airplane)
run-up (the approach run during which an athlete gathers speed)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The temporal property of becoming nearer in time
Example:
the approach of winter
Synonyms:
approach; approaching; coming
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("approaching" is a kind of...):
timing (the time when something happens)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The event of one object coming closer to another
Synonyms:
approach; approaching
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("approaching" is a kind of...):
motion; movement (a natural event that involves a change in the position or location of something)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of the relatively near future
Example:
the upcoming spring fashions
Synonyms:
approaching; coming; forthcoming; upcoming
Classified under:
Similar:
future (yet to be or coming)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb approach
Context examples:
The pretty Miss Mansfield has already received the congratulatory visits on her approaching marriage with a young Englishman, John Melbourne, Esq.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
It has a dense nucleus and its cytoplasm is approaching the color of a mature erythrocyte.
(Orthochromatophilic Erythroblast, NCI Thesaurus)
Approaching or constituting a maximum; the highest point (of something).
(Highest, NCI Thesaurus)
But he made straight for the door, crossing the roadway to save time; and as he came, he drew a key from his pocket like one approaching home.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
It was certainly a most singular figure who was approaching us over the moor.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Not so,” answered Sir Simon Burley, who had watched the approaching host with a darkening face.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“My dear fellow!” I cried, approaching him.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Issue associated with approaching certain temperatures at which a combustible liquid ignites.
(Flashpoint Threshold Met Medical Device Problem, Food and Drug Administration)
Also, an act or means of approaching.
(Access, NCI Thesaurus)
The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe is approaching Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for a historic mission to orbit and land on the comet's nucleus.
(Rosetta Comet May Be a Contact Binary, NASA)
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