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]. 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.

© [Webster 1913].

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.]

© [Webster 1913].

advantage (definition)