[VANTAGE sb. 7.] A position that places one at an advantage for defence or attack.
Freq. in 19th cent., chiefly in fig. use.
1612. Bacon, Ess., Of Great Place (Arb.), 282. That cannot be without power and place; as the vantage and commanding ground. Ibid. (1625), Of Truth (Arb.), 500. No pleasure is comparable, to the standing vpon the vantage ground of Truth.
1644. Waller, in Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. (1888), 301. I moved not till I had full assurance … that the enemy was clearly gone, lest it might have been but a feint to draw me from my vantage ground.
1774. Burke, Sp. Amer. Tax., Wks. 1842, I. 170. But I quit the vantage ground on which I stand, and where I might leave the burthen of the proof upon him.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit. (Bohn), 164. I am convinced that for the human soul to prosper in rustic life a certain vantage-ground is pre-requisite.
1830. Herschel, Study Nat. Phil., II. vi. 173. A means of fresh attack with new vantage ground.
1878. Maclear, Celts, i. 10. Making the Greek colony of Massilia … her vantage-ground.
