All 9 Uses

approach
in
Growing Up, by Baker
(Auto-generated)

Unlike the movies, talk was free, and a great river of talk flowed through the house, rising at suppertime, and cresting as my bedtime approached before subsiding into a murmur that trickled along past midnight, when all but Uncle Charlie had drifted off to bed, leaving him alone to reheat the pot, roll another cigarette, and settle down with his book.
Chpt 9 *

approached = got near
While I bullied him with subtle psychological torments, my mother took the direct approach and bullied him without finesse.
Chpt 12 *

approach = technique (way of doing something)
Approaching it was almost unbearably thrilling.†
Chpt 4
I was now approaching the age of skepticism, and though it was risky business challenging adults, I was tempted to say, "Swear on the Bible?"†
Chpt 10
That December, with Christmas approaching, she was out at work and Doris was in the kitchen when I barged into her bedroom one afternoon in search of a safety pin.†
Chpt 11
White pulses pounded with anticipation as the second fight approached, and black pulses, for all I know, may have pounded with dread.†
Chpt 14
I approached every flight like a tenderfoot sent to tame a wild horse.†
Chpt 15
My instructor, who had flown only with the pre-hangover Baker, was slack-jawed when he approached me.†
Chpt 15
Now approaching twenty, I'd lost childhood's common sense and longed desperately to become a death-dealing hero.†
Chpt 15

Definitions:

(1) (approach as in: approached the city)
to get closer to (near in space, time, quantity, or quality)
(2) (approach as in: use the best approach)
a way of doing something; or a route that leads to a particular place
(3) (approach as in: approached her with the proposal)
to begin communication with someone about something -- often a proposal or a delicate topic
(4) (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.