advert

Noun

advert (plural adverts)

1. (UK, informal) An advertisement, an ad.
   • This was a wonderful advert for the Premier League, with both Chelsea and United intent on all-out attack - but Ferguson will be concerned at how his side lost their way after imperiously controlling much of the first period.2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC
   • When I was writing my 'Tube Talk' column, a man sent me a letter complaining about the advertisement of cars on the Underground. Why would the Underground masochistically promote a rival transport mode? The answer, I discovered, was that the adverts on the network must not 'harm the brand', and a...2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 41

Verb

UK/ædvˈɜːt/US/ædvˈɝt/

advert (third-person singular simple present adverts, present participle adverting, simple past and past participle adverted)

1. (intransitive) To take notice, to pay attention (to).
   • At a time when creation seems to be endangered in so many ways through human activity, we should consciously advert to this dimension of Sunday, too.2007 September 9, the Vatican (trans.), Pope Benedict XVI (speaker), speaking in German at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Austria
2. (obsolete, transitive) To turn attention to, to take notice of (something).
   1. (obsolete, transitive, usually fixed phrases) To turn the attention (of something or someone) (to or toward) some object).
      • To meditate, one must advert the mind toward the breath
3. (intransitive) To call attention, refer (to).
   • ‘I have before suggested that a genuine blackguard is never without a pocket-handkerchief. But it is not to this fact that I now especially advert.’1842, Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
   • As soon as Miss Fairlie had left the room he spared us all embarrassment on the subject of the anonymous letter, by adverting to it of his own accord.1860, Wilkie Collins, The Woman In White