1. To raise someone to a more senior job or a higher position or rank; that is, to advance in rank, dignity, position, etc., which is the opposite of demote.
2. To put a person ahead to the next higher stage or grade of a course or series of classes.
3. To encourage the growth and development of something.
4. To publicize a product so that people will buy or rent it; that is, to encourage the sales, acceptance, etc., of (a product); especially, through advertising or other publicity. .
5. To further something by helping to arrange or to introduce it.
6. To move a soccer team or player from a lower to a higher division of a league.
7. In chess, to exchange a pawn for a more powerful piece, usually a queen, when it reaches an opponent's end of the board.