What does “fare delle avance” mean in Italian?

Le avance are romantic or sexual advances — the moves someone makes to seduce or flirt. The set phrase is fare delle avance (a qualcuno), “to make a pass at someone,” and you can rifiutare le avance, “turn them down.” It is a borrowing from French avance (from avancer, “to advance / move forward”), so Italian keeps the foreign flavor and the word usually appears in the plural.

Because it is a French loan, avance keeps an invariable, slightly chic feel and is common in celebrity gossip and dating talk: ha rifiutato le avance di un uomo famoso — “she turned down a famous man’s advances.” Don’t confuse it with the native avanzare (“to advance,” or “to be left over”) or un avanzo (“a leftover”); avance is specifically about romantic overtures.