18 uses
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1 —7 uses as in:
approached the city
Definition
to get closer to (near in space, time, quantity, or quality)
- By some fishermen his approach is regarded as premonitory of the advance of the great sperm whale.Chapters 31-33 — Queen Mab; Cetology; The Specksnyder (60% in)
approach = getting near
- They stand in so great dread of some of them, that when out at sea they are afraid to mention even their names, and carry dung, lime-stone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of the same nature in their boats, in order to terrify and prevent their too near approach.Extracts (48% in)
- However, hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed, and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner; when, arrayed in a decent suit, he quietly approached the pulpit.Chapters 7-9 — The Chapel; The Pulpit; The Sermon (23% in)
- They contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles, even as the Polynesian waters do; in large part, are shored by two great contrasting nations, as the Atlantic is; they furnish long maritime approaches to our numerous territorial colonies from the East, dotted all round their banks; here and there are frowned upon by batteries, and by the goat-like craggy guns of lofty Mackinaw; they have heard the fleet thunderings of naval victories; at intervals, they yield their beaches to wild...Chapters 52-54 — The Albatross; The Gam; The Town-Ho's Story (32% in)
- After taking counsel with his officers, he anchored the ship as far off shore as possible; loaded and ran out his two cannon from the bows; stacked his muskets on the poop; and warning the Islanders not to approach the ship at their peril, took one man with him, and setting the sail of his best whale-boat, steered straight before the wind for Tahiti, five hundred miles distant, to procure a reinforcement to his crew.Chapters 52-54 — The Albatross; The Gam; The Town-Ho's Story (93% in)
- Nor, though placed amongst a ruthless crew and every hour passed by ruthless hands, and through the livelong nights shrouded with thick darkness which might cover any pilfering approach, nevertheless every sunrise found the doubloon where the sunset left it last.Chapters 97-99 — The Lamp; Stowing Down & Clearing Up; Doubloon (44% in)
- And not only this, but to that ever-contracting, dropping circle ashore, who, for any reason, possessed the privilege of a less banned approach to him; to that timid circle the above hinted casualty—remaining, as it did, moodily unaccounted for by Ahab—invested itself with terrors, not entirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails.Chapters 106-108 — Ahab's Leg; The Carpenter; Ahab and the Carpenter (19% in)
approach = getting near
approached = moved toward
approaches = comes toward
approach = get near
approach = coming near
approach = getting near
There are no more uses of "approach" flagged with this meaning in Moby Dick.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
? —11 uses
exact meaning not specified
- STARBUCK APPROACHING HIM.Chapters 118-120 — The Quadrant; The Candles; The Deck (95% in)
- ...pilots of the port—he being suspected to have got himself made a pilot in order to save the Nantucket pilot-fee to all the ships he was concerned in, for he never piloted any other craft—Bildad, I say, might now be seen actively engaged in looking over the bows for the approaching anchor, and at intervals singing what seemed a dismal stave of psalmody, to cheer the hands at the windlass, who roared forth some sort of a chorus about the girls in Booble Alley, with hearty good will.Chapters 22-24 — Merry Christmas; The Lee Shore; The Advocate (14% in)
- In the length he attains, and in his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less portly girth, and a lighter colour, approaching to olive.Chapters 31-33 — Queen Mab; Cetology; The Specksnyder (43% in)
- And it is much to be deplored that the place to which you devote so considerable a portion of the whole term of your natural life, should be so sadly destitute of anything approaching to a cosy inhabitiveness, or adapted to breed a comfortable localness of feeling, such as pertains to a bed, a hammock, a hearse, a sentry box, a pulpit, a coach, or any other of those small and snug contrivances in which men temporarily isolate themselves.Chapters 34-36 — The Cabin-Table; The Mast-Head; The Qarter-Deck—Ahab and all (43% in)
- I know that, to the common apprehension, this phenomenon of whiteness is not confessed to be the prime agent in exaggerating the terror of objects otherwise terrible; nor to the unimaginative mind is there aught of terror in those appearances whose awfulness to another mind almost solely consists in this one phenomenon, especially when exhibited under any form at all approaching to muteness or universality.Chapters 40-42 — Midnight, Forecastle; Moby Dick; The Whiteness of the Whale (89% in)
- But not so did it seem to Ahab, who knew the sets of all tides and currents; and thereby calculating the driftings of the sperm whale's food; and, also, calling to mind the regular, ascertained seasons for hunting him in particular latitudes; could arrive at reasonable surmises, almost approaching to certainties, concerning the timeliest day to be upon this or that ground in search of his prey.Chapters 43-45 — Hark!; The Chart; The Affidavit (11% in)
- "There is some sneaking Temperance Society movement about this business," he suddenly added, now approaching Starbuck, who had just come from forward.Chapters 70-72 — The Sphynx; The Jeroboam's Story; The Monkey-Rope (94% in)
- In vain handspikes and crows were brought to bear upon the immovable fluke-chains, to pry them adrift from the timberheads; and so low had the whale now settled that the submerged ends could not be at all approached, while every moment whole tons of ponderosity seemed added to the sinking bulk, and the ship seemed on the point of going over.Chapters 79-81 — The Prairie; The Nut; The Pequod Meets the Virgin (90% in)
- As marching armies approaching an unfriendly defile in the mountains, accelerate their march, all eagerness to place that perilous passage in their rear, and once more expand in comparative security upon the plain; even so did this vast fleet of whales now seem hurrying forward through the straits; gradually contracting the wings of their semicircle, and swimming on, in one solid, but still crescentic centre.Chapters 85-87 — The Fountain; The Tail; The Grand Armada (58% in)
- The lost life-buoy was now to be replaced; Starbuck was directed to see to it; but as no cask of sufficient lightness could be found, and as in the feverish eagerness of what seemed the approaching crisis of the voyage, all hands were impatient of any toil but what was directly connected with its final end, whatever that might prove to be; therefore, they were going to leave the ship's stern unprovided with a buoy, when by certain strange signs and inuendoes Queequeg hinted a hint...Chapters 124-126 — The Needle; The Log and Line; The Life-Buoy (83% in)
- So Ahab's proceedings in this matter were not unusual; the only strange thing about them seemed to be, that Starbuck, almost the one only man who had ever ventured to oppose him with anything in the slightest degree approaching to decision—one of those too, whose faithfulness on the look-out he had seemed to doubt somewhat;—it was strange, that this was the very man he should select for his watchman; freely giving his whole life into such an otherwise distrusted person's hands.Chapters 130-132 — The Hat; The Pequod meets the Delight; The Symphony (37% in)
There are no more uses of "approach" in Moby Dick.
Typical Usage
(best examples)