Definition of "preferment" [pre•fer•ment]

• The act of advancing to a higher position or office; promotion. (noun)
• A position, appointment, or rank giving advancement, as of profit or prestige. (noun)
• The act of preferring or the state of being preferred. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Negatively, which way we are not to look for the fountain of power: Promotion comes not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert, that is, neither from the desert on the north of Jerusalem nor from that on the south; so that the fair gale of preferment is not to be expected to blow from any point of the compass, but only from above, directly thence."
• "Prouided that if he were a preest or any religious person, he should lose his benefice, and be made vncapeable of any other ecclesiasticall preferment: if he were a laie man, he should lose the prerogatiue of his estate."
• "My Americanism may be prejudiced and narrow, but the idea of preferment by inheritance and not by personal merit and achievement has the same effect on me as a red rag is said to have upon a certain male quadruped."