All 44 Uses of
approach
in
David Copperfield
- We approached it by degrees, and got, in due time, to the inn in the Whitechapel district, for which we were bound.†
Chpt 4-6 (definition 2)
- An unhappy culprit, found guilty of imperfect exercise, approaches at his command.†
Chpt 7-9 (definition 2)
- Even when Peggotty was in the act of drinking, he was seized with one of those approaches, and almost choked her.†
Chpt 10-12 (definition 2)
- I now approach a period of my life, which I can never lose the remembrance of, while I remember anything: and the recollection of which has often, without my invocation, come before me like a ghost, and haunted happier times.†
Chpt 10-12 (definition 2)
- When I heard of this approaching ceremony, I was so anxious to see them all come in, one after another, though I knew the greater part of them already, and they me, that I got an hour's leave of absence from Murdstone and Grinby's, and established myself in a corner for that purpose.†
Chpt 10-12 (definition 2)
- 'Your petitioners therefore humbly approach your honourable house,'†
Chpt 10-12 (definition 2)
- We had a very pleasant day, though we were all in a tender state about our approaching separation.†
Chpt 10-12 (definition 2)
- At length I saw some before me; and approaching them, went into a little shop (it was what we used to call a general shop, at home), and inquired if they could have the goodness to tell me where Miss Trotwood lived.†
Chpt 13-15 (definition 2)
- 'EH?' exclaimed Miss Betsey, in a tone of amazement I have never heard approached.†
Chpt 13-15 (definition 2)
- All this ran in my head so much, on that first day at Doctor Strong's, that I felt distrustful of my slightest look and gesture; shrunk within myself whensoever I was approached by one of my new schoolfellows; and hurried off the minute school was over, afraid of committing myself in my response to any friendly notice or advance.†
Chpt 16-18 (definition 2)
- Everyone appeared to feel that a parting of that sort was an awkward thing, and that the nearer it approached, the more awkward it was.†
Chpt 16-18 (definition 2)
- But after I have stood in the doorway for some time, and feasted my eyes upon the goddess of my heart, she approaches me — she, the eldest Miss Larkins!†
Chpt 16-18 (definition 2)
- We said no more as we approached the light, but made softly for the door.†
Chpt 19-21 (definition 2)
- He was so intent upon his own reflections that he was quite unconscious of my approach.†
Chpt 22-24 (definition 2)
- Suddenly there passed us — evidently following them — a young woman whose approach we had not observed, but whose face I saw as she went by, and thought I had a faint remembrance of.†
Chpt 22-24 (definition 2)
- I never beheld anything approaching to Miss Mowcher's wink except Miss Mowcher's self-possession.†
Chpt 22-24 (definition 2)
- Doctors' Commons was approached by a little low archway.†
Chpt 22-24 (definition 2)
- I approached him tenderly, for I loved even him; but he showed his whole set of teeth, got under a chair expressly to snarl, and wouldn't hear of the least familiarity.†
Chpt 25-27 (definition 2)
- 'Is that what you found your supposition on, Mrs. Crupp?' said I. 'Sir,' said Mrs. Crupp, in a tone approaching to severity, 'I've laundressed other young gentlemen besides yourself.†
Chpt 25-27 (definition 2)
- At first, I thought it was Traddles coming back for something Mrs. Micawber had left behind; but as the step approached, I knew it, and felt my heart beat high, and the blood rush to my face, for it was Steerforth's.†
Chpt 28-30 (definition 2)
- But for the reluctance I had to betray the confidence of Agnes, but for my uncertainty how to approach the subject with no risk of doing so, it would have reached them before he said, 'God bless you, Daisy, and good night!'
Chpt 28-30 (definition 1)approach = speak with someone about
- Even when he kissed her — and I never saw him approach her, but I felt that nature had given him the soul of a gentleman — she seemed to cling closer to her uncle, even to the avoidance of her chosen husband.
Chpt 28-30 (definition 2) *approach = get near
- I fear to approach it.†
Chpt 31-33 (definition 2)
- We insensibly approached the old boat, and entered.†
Chpt 31-33 (definition 2)
- Here is Miss Trotwood — and Trotwood, whom you have not seen for a long while!' and then he approached, and constrainedly gave my aunt his hand, and shook hands more cordially with me.†
Chpt 34-36 (definition 2)
- When I approached the Doctor's cottage — a pretty old place, on which he seemed to have expended some money, if I might judge from the embellishments and repairs that had the look of being just completed — I saw him walking in the garden at the side, gaiters and all, as if he had never left off walking since the days of my pupilage.†
Chpt 34-36 (definition 2)
- We had not been seated long, when I saw an approaching arrival in Mrs. Strong's face, before I heard any sound of it.†
Chpt 34-36 (definition 2)
- I congratulated Mrs. Micawber on the approaching change.†
Chpt 34-36 (definition 2)
- The little dog retreated under the sofa on my approaching him, and was with great difficulty dislodged by the fire-irons.†
Chpt 37-39 (definition 2)
- I couldn't approach the subject again, for months.
Chpt 40-42 (definition 1) *approach = begin communication with someone about
- On our approaching the house where the Misses Spenlow lived, I was at such a discount in respect of my personal looks and presence of mind, that Traddles proposed a gentle stimulant in the form of a glass of ale.†
Chpt 40-42 (definition 2)
- I did not approach her solitary figure without trembling; for this gloomy end to her determined walk, and the way in which she stood, almost within the cavernous shadow of the iron bridge, looking at the lights crookedly reflected in the strong tide, inspired a dread within me.†
Chpt 46-48 (definition 2)
- At last I ran away myself, whenever I saw an emissary of the police approaching with some new intelligence; and lived a stealthy life until he was tried and ordered to be transported.†
Chpt 46-48 (definition 2)
- But, sometimes, when I took her up, and felt that she was lighter in my arms, a dead blank feeling came upon me, as if I were approaching to some frozen region yet unseen, that numbed my life.†
Chpt 46-48 (definition 2)
- We spoke, with some approach to cheerfulness, of Mr. Peggotty's growing rich in a new country, and of the wonders he would describe in his letters.†
Chpt 49-51 (definition 2)
- The door of the boat-house stood open when I approached; and, on entering, I found it emptied of all its furniture, saving one of the old lockers, on which Mrs. Gummidge, with a basket on her knee, was seated, looking at Mr. Peggotty.†
Chpt 49-51 (definition 2)
- As it approached nearer and nearer to half past nine o'clock, our restless expectation of Mr. Micawber increased.†
Chpt 52-54 (definition 2)
- 'Approach me again, you — you — you HEEP of infamy,' gasped Mr. Micawber, 'and if your head is human, I'll break it.†
Chpt 52-54 (definition 2)
- Traddles, with a perceptible lengthening of his face, explained that he had not been able to approach this subject; that it had shared the fate of Mr. Micawber's liabilities, in not being comprehended in the terms he had made; that we were no longer of any authority with Uriah Heep; and that if he could do us, or any of us, any injury or annoyance, no doubt he would.†
Chpt 52-54 (definition 2)
- 'Now's the day, and now's the hour, See the front of battle lower, See approach proud EDWARD'S power — Chains and slavery!†
Chpt 52-54 (definition 2)
- CHAPTER 55 TEMPEST I now approach an event in my life, so indelible, so awful, so bound by an infinite variety of ties to all that has preceded it, in these pages, that, from the beginning of my narrative, I have seen it growing larger and larger as I advanced, like a great tower in a plain, and throwing its fore-cast shadow even on the incidents of my childish days.†
Chpt 55-57 (definition 2)
- I had been in Yarmouth when the seamen said it blew great guns, but I had never known the like of this, or anything approaching to it.†
Chpt 55-57 (definition 2)
- I could not help thinking, as we approached the gate, what an uproar would have been made in the country, if any deluded man had proposed to spend one half the money it had cost, on the erection of an industrial school for the young, or a house of refuge for the deserving old.†
Chpt 61-62 (definition 2)
Uses with a very rare meaning:
- When my mother came down to breakfast and was going to make the tea, Miss Murdstone gave her a kind of peck on the cheek, which was her nearest approach to a kiss, and said: 'Now, Clara, my dear, I am come here, you know, to relieve you of all the trouble I can.†
Chpt 4-6 (definition 3) *
Definitions:
-
(1) (approach as in: approached her with the proposal) to begin communication with someone about something -- often a proposal or a delicate topic
-
(2) (approach as in: approached the city) to get closer to (near in space, time, quantity, or quality)
-
(3) (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.