• Instance

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /ˈɪnstÉ™ns/

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    From Middle French instance, from Latin instantia ("a being near, presence, also perseverance, earnestness, importunity, urgency"), from instans ("urgent"); see instant.

    Full definition of instance

    Noun

    instance

    (plural instances)
    1. (obsolete) Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence. 14th-19th c.
      • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.8:I know one very well alied, to whom, at the instance of a brother of his ..., I spake to that purpose ....
      • Sir Walter Scott... undertook at her instance to restore them.
    2. (obsolete) A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.It sends some precious instance of itself/ After the thing it loves. Hamlet IV. v. ca. 1602
    3. (obsolete) That which is urgent; motive.
      • ShakespeareThe instances that second marriage move
        Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
    4. Occasion; order of occurrence.
      • Sir M. HaleThese seem as if, in the time of Edward I., they were drawn up into the form of a law, in the first instance.
    5. A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example. from 16th c.
      • Atterburymost remarkable instances of suffering
      • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy:sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom he never saw ...
    6. One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
      • 2006, Robert Spaemann, Persons: The Difference Between 'someone' and 'something', One's own death is an 'accidental' event, simply another instance of the general rule that human beings die.
      • 2010, Kenneth Anderson, How to Change Your Drinking: a Harm Reduction Guide to Alcohol, If you choose to drink again the best way to avoid another instance of withdrawal is to avoid drinking two days in a row.
      • 2010, The Guardian, 11 Oct 2010:The organisations claim fraudsters are targeting properties belonging to both individuals and companies, in some instances using forged documents.
    7. (obsolete) A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something). 16th-18th c.
      • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors:The reason that I gather he is mad, Besides this present instance of his rage, Is a mad tale he told to day at dinner ....
    8. (computing) In object-oriented programming: a created object, one that has had memory allocated for local data storage; an instantiation of a class. from 20th c.
    9. (massively multiplayer online games) A dungeon or other area that is duplicated for each player, or each party of players, that enters it, so that each player or party has a private copy of the area, isolated from other players.
    , Usenet:
    1. (massively multiplayer online games) An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
    , Usenet:
    , Usenet:
      • As soon as the first player enters (spawns) a new instance, it appears that the loottable is somehow chosen.
      • 2010, Anthony Steed & Manuel Fradinho Oliveira, Networked Graphics: Building Networked Games and Virtual Environments, Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-12-374423-4, page 398:A castle on the eastern edge of the island spawns a new instance whenever a party of players enters.

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite; as, to instance a fact.
      • 1946, E. M. Butler, Rainer Maria Rilke, p. 404The poems which I have instanced are concrete and relatively glaring examples of the intangible difference which the change of language made in Rilke's visions .
    2. (intransitive) To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.
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