All 12 Uses of

approach
in
Funny in Farsi

We had not made any further plans, choosing instead a more adventurous approach.†
p. 167.7 *

approach = get near

My mother's approach to learning English consisted of daily lessons with Monty Hall and Bob Barker.†
p. 10.1

We lived near a strip mall well supplied with restaurants, all of which took a similar high-grease approach to cooking.†
p. 26.7

My father's devotion to Denny's restaurants approached religious fervor.†
p. 51.2

My father considered the sight of my mother approaching him to be a certain sign of bad luck.†
p. 52.7

My father, an engineer, had an entirely logical approach to teaching his students to swim.†
p. 69.8

The cerebral approach worked on all of my father's swimming students, most of whom, not coincidentally, grew up to be engineers.†
p. 70.1

As college approached, I stumbled upon a talent better than selling popcorn or polishing silver.†
p. 129.6

I've known Americans who, unaware of the kissing ritual, have wanted to run for the nearest exit at the sight of a puckering Iranian uncle approaching with open arms.†
p. 150.3

We stood arguing on the street corner for a while; then Francois approached a policeman and asked him whether he had ever heard of a mail boat called the Spanish Rose.†
p. 169.7

Halfway through our stay, as we were eating yet another frighteningly expensive meal, the owner of the hotel approached our table, sat down, and asked us if we were enjoying our stay.†
p. 173.5

As the boat approached, I could see a woman wearing a purple hat with large purple feathers waving at everyone.†
p. 174.8

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)
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.