proceed

Verb

proceed (third-person singular simple present proceeds, present participle proceeding, simple past and past participle proceeded)

1. (intransitive) To move, pass, or go forward or onward; to advance; to carry on.
   • to proceed on a journey
   • Having completed their task, Fireman Page telephoned from a lineside box to the next signal cabin, briefly reported the incident and said that, as no high explosive had dropped and the track was safe, they proposed proceeding "at caution".1944 July and August, “Top Link Drivers: XXI—Driver H. Blunt, L.N.E.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 226
2. (intransitive) To pass from one point, topic, or stage, to another.
   • to proceed with a story or argument
   • Work is proceeding at a steady gait.
3. (intransitive) To come from; to have as its source or origin.
   • Light proceeds from the sun.
4. (intransitive) To go on in an orderly or regulated manner; to begin and carry on a series of acts or measures; to act methodically.
   • He that proceeds upon others Principles in his Enquiry into any Sciences, though he be reſolv’d to examine them and judge of them freely, does yet at leaſt put himſelf on that ſide, and poſt himſelf in a Party which he will not quit ’till he be beaten out; […]a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC, § 34, pages 105–106
5. (intransitive) To be transacted; to take place; to occur.
   • And he will (after his ſowre faſhion) tell you
     What hath proceeded worthy note to day.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
6. (intransitive) To be applicable or effective; to be valid.
   • For it [this rule] only proceeds and takes place, when a Perſon cannot of common Right condemn or bind another by his Sentence; […]1726, John Ayliffe, “Of Absolution”, in Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach...
7. (intransitive) To begin and carry on a legal process.
   • “Gentlemen, shall we proceed?” the judge said.
     From the beginning, Judge Fong appeared bored at Levine's coaxing remarks.2005, Rodney Stich, Disavow: Sage of Betrayal
8. (intransitive) To take an academic degree.