vantage

• vauntage (obsolete)

From Middle English vantage, by apheresis from advantage; see advantage.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɑːntɪd͡ʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvæntɪd͡ʒ/

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vantage (countable and uncountable, plural vantages)

1. (archaic) An advantage.
   • 1841, John Foxe, The History of John Wickliffe, page 21:

     The Londoners seeing that they could get no vantage against the duke, who was without their reach, to bewreak their anger they took his arms, which in most despiteful wise they hanged up in the open places of the city in sign of reproach, as for a traitor; […]

2. A place or position affording a good view; a vantage point.
   • 1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 149:

     From this point of vantage, we were able to gain an impression of the massive outlines of the main structure, and its intricate maze of girders.

3. A superior or more favorable situation or opportunity; gain; profit; advantage.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     O happy vantage of a kneeling knee!

4. (dated, tennis) Alternative form of advantage (score after deuce)

Largely obsolete outside the phrase vantage point.

vantage (third-person singular simple present vantages, present participle vantaging, simple past and past participle vantaged)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To profit; to aid.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     needlesse feare did never vantage none

• “vantage”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “vantage”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.