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Convenience of situation; fitness. [Obs.] Hull, a town of great strength and opportunity, both to sea and land affairs. Milton.

Want of opportunity; unseasonableness; inconvenience. [R.]

. I shall always fear that he who accustoms himself to fraud in little things, wants only opportunity to practice it in greater. Adventurer.

he Christ. Matt. xxvi. 63. The commissioners adjured them not to let pass so favorable an opportunity of securing their liberties. Marshall.

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. Give me advantage of some brief discourse. Shak. The advantages of a close alliance. Macaulay.

A access, or opportunity of drawing near. The approach to kings and principal persons. Bacon.

l they seek to avail themselves of names. Milton. I have availed myself of the very first opportunity. Dickens.

An inclosure; a boundary; a limit. [Obs.] A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spirit . . . desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body. Jer. Taylor.

Chance; accident; hap; opportunity. [Obs.] By aventure, or sort, or cas. Chaucer.

A chance, opportunity, privilege, or advantage; specifically, an opportunity of riding; a lift. [Scotch] We bargained with the driver to give us a cast to the next stage. Smollett. If we had the cast o' a cart to bring it. Sir W. Scott.

The posture of seizing; a state of preparation to lay hold of, or of watching he opportunity to seize; as, to lie on the catch. [Archaic] Addison. The common and the canon law . . . lie at catch, and wait advantages one againt another. T. Fuller.

A possibity; a likelihood; an opportunity; -- with reference to a doubtful result; as, a chance result; as, a chance to escape; a chance for life; the chances are all against him. So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune. That I would get my life on any chance, To mend it, or be rid on't Shak.

The power or opportunity of choosing; option. Choice there is not, unless the thing which we take be so in our power that we might have refused it. Hooker.

absolution; -- sometimes followed by the reflexive pronoun. Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father. Addison.

A convenient or fit time; opportunity; as, to do something at one's convenience.

ne or question, as a witness who has been called and examined by the opposite party. "The opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses." Kent.

ake an empty speech; to rehearse trite arguments in debate; to rant. Grenville seized the opportunity to declaim on the repeal of the stamp act. Bancroft.

To enter into contest with; to encounter; to bring to conflict. A favorable opportunity of engaging the enemy. Ludlow.

ded; partial; as, an ex parte statement. Ex parte application, one made without notice or opportunity to oppose. -- Ex parte council, one that assembles at the request of only one of the parties in dispute. -- Ex parte hearing or evidence (Law), that which is had or taken by one side or party in the absence of the ot…

To send by express messenger; to forward by special opportunity, or through the medium of an express; as, to express a package.