Category:Entrance

En"trance, n. Etym: [OF. entrance, fr. OF. & F. entrant, p. pr. of entrer to enter. See Enter.]

1. The act of entering or going into; ingress; as, the entrance of a person into a house or an apartment; hence, the act of taking possession, as of property, or of office; as, the entrance of an heir upon his inheritance, or of a magistrate into office.

2. Liberty, power, or permission to enter; as, to give entrance to friends. Shak.

3. The passage, door, or gate, for entering. Show us, we pray thee, the entrance into the city. Judg. i. 24.

4. The entering upon; the beginning, or that with which the beginning is made; the commencement; initiation; as, a difficult entrance into business. "Beware of entrance to a quarrel." Shak. St. Augustine, in the entrance of one of his discourses, makes a kind of apology. Hakewill.

5. The causing to be entered upon a register, as a ship or goods, at a customhouse; an entering; as, his entrance of the arrival was made the same day.

6. (Naut.) (a) The angle which the bow of a vessel makes with the water at the water line. Ham. Nav. Encyc. (b) The bow, or entire wedgelike forepart of a vessel, below the water line. Totten.

entrance En*trance", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Entranced; p. pr. & vb. n. Entrancing.] Etym: [Pref. en- + trance.]

1. To put into a trance; to make insensible to present objects. Him, still entranced and in a litter laid, They bore from field and to the bed conveyed. Dryden.

2. To put into an ecstasy; to ravish with delight or wonder; to enrapture; to charm. And I so ravished with her heavenly note, I stood entranced, and had no room for thought. Dryden.