instance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence.

   I know one very well alied, to whom, at the instance of a brother of his[…], I spake to that purpose[…].

2. 2
   noun

   A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.

   It sends some precious instance of itself/ After the thing it loves.

3. 3
   noun

   That which is urgent; motive.

   The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.

4. 4
   noun

   A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something).

   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 […]

5. 5
   noun

   An occasion; an order of occurrence.

   The Statutes, or Acts of Parliament themſelves. Theſe ſeem, as if in the Time of Edw[ard] I. they were drawn up into the Form of a Law in the firſt Inſtance, and ſo aſſented to by both Houſes, and the King, as may appear by the very Obſervation of the Contexture and Fabrick of the Statutes of thoſe Times.

6. 6
   noun

   A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example.

   August 30, 1706, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Bennet most remarkable instances of suffering

7. 7
   noun

   One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.

   One's own death is an 'accidental' event, simply another instance of the general rule that human beings die.

8. 8
   noun

   A specific occurrence of something that is created or instantiated, such as a database, or an object of a class in object-oriented programming.

   Some compilers will allow statics to be inlined, but then incorrectly create multiple instances of the inlined variable at run-time.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French instance, from Latin īnstantia (“a being near, presence, also perseverance, earnestness, importunity, urgency”), from īnstāns (“urgent”); see instant.