approach.
To come or go near, in place or time; to move toward; to advance nearer; to draw nigh.
Meaning & usage
To come or go near, in place or time; to move toward; to advance nearer; to draw nigh.
She approached the door cautiously.
We were approached by a stranger asking for directions.
To play an approach shot.
Used intransitively, followed by to: to draw near (to someone or something); to make advances; to approximate or become almost equal.
He approaches to the character of the ablest statesman.
Of an immovable object or a number of such objects: to be positioned as to (notionally) appear to be moving towards (a place).
As we drove along the driveway, the trees approaching the house seemed more eerie.
To move toward (someone or something) in place, time, character, or value; to draw nearer to.
“Would counsel please approach the bench?” asked the judge.
He approached the age of manhood.
To bring (something) near something else; to cause (something) to draw near.
Used when defining limits, preceded by as: To become arbitrarily close to some value, be it a number, vector or infinity and have an effect on another value.
To attempt to make (a policy) or solve (a problem).
To bring up or propose to (someone) an idea, question, request, etc.
To have sexual intercourse with (someone).
To take approaches to (a place); to move towards (a place) by using covered roads, trenches, or other works.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English aprochen, borrowed from Old French aprochier (modern French approcher), from Late Latin appropiāre, a verb based on Latin prope (“near”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (a variant of *per- (“before, in front; first”)) + *-kʷe (“suffix forming distributives from interrogatives”)).
An act of drawing near in place or time; an advancing or coming near.
An act of coming near in character or value; an approximation.
An avenue, passage, or way by which a building or place can be approached; an access.
An avenue, passage, or way by which a building or place can be approached; an access. A path taken to reach the climbing area, for example, from a car park, road, etc.
A manner of making (a policy) or solving (a problem, etc.).
An opportunity of drawing near; access.
The way an aircraft comes in to land at an airport.
The way an aircraft comes in to land at an airport. A specific procedure used for approaching and landing at an airport.
We flew the RNAV/GPS A approach to runway 16.
The area before the lane in which a bowler may stand or run up before bowling the ball.
Ellipsis of approach shot.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English approche (“approach, arrival”), from approchen, aprochen (“to come or go near, approach; to adjoin, be close by; to enter (someone’s) presence; to be or become involved; to reach (a certain state); to arrive; to befall, happen to; to become similar to, resemble; to be a match for (someone)”); see etymology 1.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.