n. [ OE. avantage, avauntage, F. avantage, fr. avant before. See Advance, and cf. Vantage. ] 1. Any condition, circumstance, opportunity, or means, particularly favorable to success, or to any desired end; benefit; as, the enemy had the advantage of a more elevated position. [ 1913 Webster ] Give me advantage of some brief discourse. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ] The advantages of a close alliance. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Superiority; mastery; -- with of or over. [ 1913 Webster ] Lest Satan should get an advantage of us. 2 Cor. ii. 11. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. Superiority of state, or that which gives it; benefit; gain; profit; as, the advantage of a good constitution. [ 1913 Webster ] 4. Interest of money; increase; overplus (as the thirteenth in the baker's dozen). [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ] And with advantage means to pay thy love. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ] 5. (Tennis) The first point scored after deuce. [ PJC ]
Advantage ground, vantage ground. [ R. ] Clarendon. --
To have the advantage of (any one), to have a personal knowledge of one who does not have a reciprocal knowledge. “You have the advantage of me; I don't remember ever to have had the honor.” Sheridan. --
To take advantage of, to profit by; (often used in a bad sense) to overreach, to outwit. [ 1913 Webster ]
Syn. -- Advantage, Advantageous, Benefit, Beneficial. We speak of a thing as a benefit, or as beneficial, when it is simply productive of good; as, the benefits of early discipline; the beneficial effects of adversity. We speak of a thing as an advantage, or as advantageous, when it affords us the means of getting forward, and places us on a “vantage ground” for further effort. Hence, there is a difference between the benefits and the advantages of early education; between a beneficial and an advantageous investment of money. [ 1913 Webster ] | 
