INSTANCE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Instance

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/ˈɪnstəns/ Listen

noun

Instance n.

1.

The act or quality of being instant or pressing; urgency; solicitation; application; suggestion; motion. "Undertook at her instance to restore them."

2.

That which is instant or urgent; motive. (Obs.) "The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love."

3.

Occasion; order of occurrence. "These seem as if, in the time of Edward I., they were drawn up into the form of a law, in the first instance."

4.

That which offers itself or is offered as an illustrative case; something cited in proof or exemplification; a case occurring; an example; as, we could find no instance of poisoning in the town within the past year. "Most remarkable instances of suffering."

5.

A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.

Causes of instance, those which proceed at the solicitation of some party.

Court of first instance, the court by which a case is first tried.

For instance, by way of example or illustration; for example.

Instance Court (Law), the Court of Admiralty acting within its ordinary jurisdiction, as distinguished from its action as a prize court.

Synonyms: Example; case. See Example.

verb

Instance v. t. (past & past part. instanced; pres. part. instancing) To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite; as, to instance a fact. "I shall not instance an abstruse author."

Instance v. i. To give an example. (Obs.) "This story doth not only instance in kingdoms, but in families too."

See images of 'Instance'

Etymology of 'Instance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Instance" Quotes from Famous Books

... for instance, getting letters and answering them without any sort of supervision! [To her brother] She manages in such a way that I don't even see the envelopes! [To her husband] I object very much, too, to her ...

— Woman on Her Own, False Gods & The Red Robe - Three Plays By Brieux • Eugene Brieux

... four years ago to the chair of Scriptural Interpretation in the University of Utrecht, now the centre of evangelical theology in Holland. He had been pastor of a church in Rotterdam, and his new appointment, made at the instance of the King and his ministers, was a great triumph of the orthodox party. He had already distinguished himself by his Life of Christ and Christology, in six volumes, and by his exegetical labors in connection with Lange's Bible Work. But the ...

— History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology • John F. Hurst

... There was one instance, however, of an old man, whose name was Egeus, who actually did come before Theseus (at that time the reigning Duke of Athens), to complain that his daughter whom he had commanded to marry Demetrius, a young man of a noble Athenian family, refused to obey him, because she loved ...

— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... of calm sympathy. There is a look of helpful attention peculiar to the faces of some who have known much suffering; in this instance, the grave force of character which at all times made the countenance impressive heightened the effect of its gentleness. In external matters, the two men knew little more of each other now than after their first meeting, but the spiritual alliance between them had strengthened with ...

— The Nether World • George Gissing

... character of the individual forms and branching, their harmony in their relations to each other as factors of a beautiful composition and the wealth of shades and colors in their leaves, bark and flowers. Compare, for instance, the intricate ramification of an American elm with the simple branching of a sugar maple, the sturdiness of a white oak with the tenderness of a soft maple, the wide spread of a beech with the slender form of a Lombardy ...

— Studies of Trees • Jacob Joshua Levison

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