The Collaborative International Dictionary
Instance \In"stance\, n. [F. instance, L. instantia, fr. instans. See Instant.]
-
The act or quality of being instant or pressing; urgency; solicitation; application; suggestion; motion.
Undertook at her instance to restore them.
--Sir W. Scott. -
That which is instant or urgent; motive. [Obs.]
The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
--Shak. -
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.
--Sir M. Hale. -
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.
--Atterbury. -
A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.
--Shak.Causes of instance, those which proceed at the solicitation of some party.
--Hallifax.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.
Syn: Example; case. See Example.
Wiktionary
adv. (lb en conjunctive) As an example. alt. (lb en conjunctive) As an example.
WordNet
adv. as an example; "take ribbon snakes, for example" [syn: for example, e.g.]
Usage examples of "for instance".
A map by an Englishman named Proctor, for instance, had relied on the sketches of a Reverend William Dawes.
If you were a child he passed on his way to your father's study, for instance, he would most surely have spoken to you.
Lis knew this attraction to the girl had an enigmatic, almost a dangerous, side-the time, for instance, that Claire had stayed after class to discuss a book report.
I'm not surprised really, it's pretty much what I expected, and I take comfort from the fact that it's an ambiguous warning, albeit only very, very slightly ambiguous - it's not you, Brian, it's the mushrooms - the implication being that if she'd ordered a different appetiser, the deep-fried Camembert for instance, then we'd have already made love by now.
That suit of yours, for instance, didn't come from the same sort of place as this little lot.
Should you, for instance, find yourself unable to deliver the goods within the specified time, the patrol is most unlikely to be harsh with you.
If we are both standing looking at a door, for instance, I see the door and you see the door--but you also maybe see the doorknob and the keyhole and the grain of the wood.
No, the man had never before been to that place, nor had the grave been marked in any way, by a belated attempt to cut the brambles from it, for instance.
It was equally possible Mickey's presence was generated by another motive, a woman, for instance, or the need to escape his financial woes in L.