All 5 Uses of
approach
in
A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Beetles black, approach not near;
Scene 2.2 *approach = come near
- THESEUS Let him approach.
Scene 5.1approach = get near
- Approach, ye furies fell!
Scene 5.1approach = come near
- PUCK My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast; And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger, At whose approach ghosts, wandering here and there, Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all, That in cross-ways and floods have burial, Already to their wormy beds are gone; For fear lest day should look their shames upon They wilfully exile themselves from light, And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.†
Scene 3.2
- —By day's approach look to be visited.†
Scene 3.2
Definitions:
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(1)
(approach as in: approached the city) to get closer to (near in space, time, quantity, or quality)
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(2)
(approach as in: use the best approach) a way of doing something; or a route that leads to a particular place
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(3)
(approach as in: approached her with the proposal) to begin communication with someone about something -- often a proposal or a delicate topic
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(4)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely (and typically only in classic literature), the phrase nearest approach to as used in "her nearest approach to an apology" or "her nearest approach to a smile" typically means that "something is as close to something else as it ever gets." "As near an approach to" can have a similar meaning.