something that is advantageous or good; an advantage: He explained the benefits of public ownership of the postal system.
2.
a payment or gift, as one made to help someone or given by a benefit society, insurance company, or public agency: The company offers its employees a pension plan, free health insurance, and other benefits.
3.
a theatrical performance or other public entertainment to raise money for a charitable organization or cause.
4.
Archaic. an act of kindness; good deed; benefaction.
–verb (used with object)
5.
to do good to; be of service to: a health program to benefit everyone.
–verb (used without object)
6.
to derive benefit or advantage; profit; make improvement: He has never benefited from all that experience.
—Idiom
7.
for someone's benefit, so as to produce a desired effect in another's mind: He wasn't really angry; that was just an act for his girlfriend's benefit.
[Origin: 1350–1400; late ME benefytt, benefett (n.), alter. (with Latinized first syll.) of ME b(i)enfet, benefait < AF benfet, MF bienfait < L benefactum good deed; see bene-, fact]
Something that promotes or enhances well-being; an advantage: The field trip was of great benefit to the students.
Help; aid.
A payment made or an entitlement available in accordance with a wage agreement, an insurance policy, or a public assistance program.
A public entertainment, performance, or social event held to raise funds for a person or cause.
Archaic A kindly deed.
v.
ben·e·fit·ed also ben·e·fit·ted, ben·e·fit·ing also ben·e·fit·ting, ben·e·fits also ben·e·fits
v.
tr.
To be helpful or useful to.
v.
intr.
To derive benefit: You will benefit from her good example.
[Middle English, from Old French bienfait, good deed, from Latin benefactum, from benefacere, to do a service; see benefaction.]
Synonyms: These verbs mean to derive advantage from something: benefited from the stock split; capitalized on her adversary's blunder; profiting from experience.
1377, "good or noble deed," from Anglo-Fr. benfet "well-done," from L. benefactum "good deed" (see benefactor.) Meaning "advantage, profit" first attested 1393. Meaning "performance or entertainment to raise money for some charitable cause" is from 1687. The verb is attested from 1549. Benefice "ecclesiastical living" is from 1340.
Ad*van"tage\ (?; 61, 48), n. [OE. avantage, avauntage, F. avantage, fr. avant before. See Advance, and cf. Vantage.]1. 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. 2. Superiority; mastery; -- with of or over. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us. --2 Cor. ii. 11. 3. Superiority of state, or that which gives it; benefit; gain; profit; as, the advantage of a good constitution. 4. Interest of money; increase; overplus (as the thirteenth in the baker's dozen). [Obs.] And with advantage means to pay thy love. --Shak. Advantage ground, vantage ground. [R.] --Clarendon. To have the advantage of (any one), to have a personal knowledge of one who does not have a reciprocal knowledge. "You have the advantage of me; I don't remember ever to have had the honor." --Sheridan. To take advantage of, to profit by; (often used in a bad sense) to overreach, to outwit. Syn: Advantage, Advantageous, Benefit, Beneficial. Usage: We speak of a thing as a benefit, or as beneficial, when it is simply productive of good; as, the benefits of early discipline; the beneficial effects of adversity. We speak of a thing as an advantage, or as advantageous, when it affords us the means of getting forward, and places us on a "vantage ground" for further effort. Hence, there is a difference between the benefits and the advantages of early education; between a beneficial and an advantageous investment of money.
Ben`e*fac"tion\, n. [L. benefactio, fr. benefacere to do good to one; bene well + facere to do. See Benefit.]1. The act of conferring a benefit. --Johnson. 2. A benefit conferred; esp. a charitable donation. Syn: Gift; present; gratuity; boon; alms.
Ben"e*fice\, n. [F. b['e]n['e]fice, L. beneficium, a kindness, in LL. a grant of an estate, fr. L. beneficus beneficent; bene well + facere to do. See Benefit.]1. A favor or benefit. [Obs.] --Baxter. 2. (Feudal Law) An estate in lands; a fief. Note: Such an estate was granted at first for life only, and held on the mere good pleasure of the donor; but afterward, becoming hereditary, it received the appellation of fief, and the term benefice became appropriated to church livings. 3. An ecclesiastical living and church preferment, as in the Church of England; a church endowed with a revenue for the maintenance of divine service. See Advowson. Note: All church preferments are called benefices, except bishoprics, which are called dignities. But, ordinarily, the term dignity is applied to bishoprics, deaneries, archdeaconries, and prebendaryships; benefice to parsonages, vicarages, and donatives.
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