| advance | 1. The act of advancing or moving forward or upward; progress. 2. Improvement or progression, physically, mentally, morally, or socially; as, an advance in health, knowledge, or religion; an advance in rank or office. 3. An addition to the price; rise in price or value; as, an advance on the prime cost of goods. 4. The first step towards the attainment of a result; approach made to gain favor, to form an acquaintance, to adjust a difference, etc.; an overture; a tender; an offer; usually in the plural. "[He] made the like advances to the dissenters." (Swift) 5. A furnishing of something before an equivalent is received (as money or goods), towards a capital or stock, or on loan; payment beforehand; the money or goods thus furnished; money or value supplied beforehand. "I shall, with pleasure, make the necessary advances." (Jay) "The account was made up with intent to show what advances had been made." (Kent) In advance In front; before. Beforehand; before an equivalent is received. In the state of having advanced money on account; as, A is advance to B a thousand dollars or pounds. Origin: Cf. F. Avance, fr. Avancer. See Advance, v. 1. To bring forward; to move towards the van or front; to make to go on. 2. To raise; to elevate. "They . . . Advanced their eyelids." (Shak) 3. To raise to a higher rank; to promote. "Ahasueres . . . Advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes." (Esther III. 1) 4. To accelerate the growth or progress; to further; to forward; to help on; to aid; to heighten; as, to advance the ripening of fruit; to advance one's interests. 5. To bring to view or notice; to offer or propose; to show; as, to advance an argument. "Some ne'er advance a judgment of their own." (Pope) 6. To make earlier, as an event or date; to hasten. 7. To furnish, as money or other value, before it becomes due, or in aid of an enterprise; to supply beforehand; as, a merchant advances money on a contract or on goods consigned to him. 8. To raise to a higher point; to enhance; to raise in rate; as, to advance the price of goods. 9. To extol; to laud. "Greatly advancing his gay chivalry." (Spenser) Synonym: To raise, elevate, exalt, aggrandize, improve, heighten, accelerate, allege, adduce, assign. Origin: OE. Avancen, avauncen, F. Avancer, fr. A supposed LL. Abantiare; ab + ante (F. Avant) before. The spelling with d was a mistake, a- being supposed to be fr. L. Ad. See Avaunt. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| advance directives | Advance directives preserve the person's right to accept or reject a course of medical treatment even after that person becomes mentally or physically incapacitated to the point of being unable to communicate those wishes. There ared two basic types of advance directives: (1) a living will, in which the person outlines specific treatment guidelines that are to be followed by health care providers; (2) a health care proxy (also called a power of attorney for healthcare decision making) in which the person designates a trusted individual to make medical decisions in the event that he or she becomes too incapacitated to make such decisions. Advance directive requirements vary greatly from one jurisdiction to another and should therefore be drawn up in consultation with an attorney who is familiar with the laws of the particular jurisdiction. (This entry is based upon material from the National MS Society). (12 Mar 2000) |
| advance medical directives | Advance directives preserve the person's right to accept or reject a course of medical treatment even after that person becomes mentally or physically incapacitated to the point of being unable to communicate those wishes. There ared two basic types of advance directives: (1) a living will, in which the person outlines specific treatment guidelines that are to be followed by health care providers; (2) a health care proxy (also called a power of attorney for healthcare decision making) in which the person designates a trusted individual to make medical decisions in the event that he or she becomes too incapacitated to make such decisions. Advance directive requirements vary greatly from one jurisdiction to another and should therefore be drawn up in consultation with an attorney who is familiar with the laws of the particular jurisdiction. (This entry is based upon material from the National MS Society). (12 Mar 2000) |
| advanced concepts torus i | <physics> A steady-state toroidal device built primarily for studies of RF heating and RF current drive. Acronym: ACT I (09 Oct 1997) |
| advanced fuels | <radiobiology> There are several elements or isotopes that could be fused together, besides the DT fuel mixture. Many such fuel combinations would have various advantages over DT, but it is generally more difficult to achieve fusion with these advanced fuels than with the DT mix. (09 Oct 1997) |
| advanced life support | Definitive emergency medical care that includes defibrillation, airway management, and use of drugs and medications. Compare: basic life support. (05 Mar 2000) |
| advanced multiple-beam equalization radiography | A variant of scanning equalization radiography using several X-ray beams. (05 Mar 2000) |
| advanced toroidal facility | <physics> A large stellarator device developed at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), but now retired. Acronym: ATF (09 Oct 1997) |
| advancement | Surgical procedure in which a ligamentous or partially tendinous insertion or a skin flap is partially severed or released from its attachment and sutured to a more distal point. (05 Mar 2000) |
| advancement flap | A rectangular flap raised in an elastic area, with its free end adjacent to a defect; the defect is covered by stretching the flap longitudinally until the end comes over it. Synonym: advancement flap, French flap. (05 Mar 2000) |
| advent | 1. The period including the four Sundays before Christmas. Advent Sunday, the first Sunday in the season of Advent, being always the nearest Sunday to the feast of St. Andrew (Now. 30). 2. The first or the expected second coming of Christ. 3. Coming; any important arrival; approach. "Death's dreadful advent." (Young) "Expecting still his advent home." (Tennyson) Origin: L. Adventus, fr. Advenire, adventum: cf. F. Avent. See Advene. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| adventitia | The outermost connective tissue covering of any organ, vessel, or other structure not covered by a serosa; instead, the covering is properly derived from without (i.e., from the surrounding connective tissue) and does not form an integral part of such organ or structure. Synonym: tunica adventitia, membrana adventitia. Origin: L. Adventicius, coming from abroad, foreign, fr. Ad, to + venio, to come (05 Mar 2000) |
| adventitial | Relating to the outer coat or adventitia of a blood vessel or other structure. Synonym: adventitious. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adventitial cell | <pathology> Cell associated with the walls of small blood vessels: not a smooth muscle cell, nor an endothelial cell. (18 Nov 1997) |
| adventitial neuritis | Inflammation of the sheath of a nerve. See: perineuritis. (05 Mar 2000) |