instance

Definition

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

Etymology

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

Example Sentences

• "I know one very well alied, to whom, at the instance of a brother of his[…], I spake to that purpose[…]."
• "[…]undertook at her instance to restore them."
• "It was settled, as long ago as the first Congress, at the instance of Madison, then in the Senate, and by the deciding vote of John Adams, then Vice-President, that even where the advice and consent of the Senate was necessary to the appointment of an officer, the President had the absolute power to remove him without consulting the Senate."

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