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Precedent. [Obs.] Bacon.

To suppose beforehand; to imply as antecedent; to take for granted; to assume; as, creation presupposes a creator. Each [kind of knowledge] presupposes many necessary things learned in other sciences, and known beforehand. Hooker.

The act of presupposing; an antecedent implication; presumption.

Passed through; antecedent; previous; as, preterient states. [R.]

To go before; to precede; hence, to go before as a guide; to direct. [Obs.] We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 1 Thess. iv. 15. We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us. Bk. of Common Prayer. Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen. P…

Going before in time; being or happening before something else; antecedent; prior; as, previous arrangements; a previous illness. The dull sound . . . previous to the storm, Rolls o'er the muttering earth. Thomson. Previous question. (Parliamentary Practice) See under Question, and compare Closure. -- Previous to, bef…

Beforehand; antecedently; as, a plan previously formed.

The quality or state of being previous; priority or antecedence in time.

Preceding in the order of time; former; antecedent; anterior; previous; as, a prior discovery; prior obligation; -- used elliptically in cases like the following: he lived alone [in the time] prior to his marriage.

The quality or state of being prior or antecedent in time, or of preceding something else; as, priority of application.

vidence and balancing of probabilities. Buckminster. We do not call for evidence till antecedent probabilities fail. J. H. Newman.

Previous; antecedent. Glanvill.

ntrasted with an ultimate analysis. -- Proximate cause. (a) A cause which immediately precedes and produces the effect, as distinguished from the remote, mediate, or predisposing cause. I. Watts. (b) That which in ordinary natural sequence produces a specific result, no independent disturbing agencies intervening. --…

through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents. De Quincey.

That which holds back, or causes to recede; a drawback; a hindrance.

Any insect in that stage of its metamorphosis which usually immediately precedes the adult, or imago, stage.

ranks, to supply the whole number, or a competent number. -- To take rank of, to have precedence over, or to have the right of taking a higher place than.pull rank, to insist on one's own prerogative or plan of action, by right of a higher rank than that of one suggesting a different plan

One of the Primitive Methodists, who seceded from the Wesleyan Methodists on the ground of their deficiency in fervor and zeal; -- so called in contempt.

signifying back, against, again, anew; as, recline, to lean back; recall, to call back; recede; remove; reclaim, to call out against; repugn, to fight against; recognition, a knowing again; rejoin, to join again; reiterate, reassure. Combinations containing the prefix re- are readily formed, and are for the most part o…

Having for its direct object a pronoun which refers to the agent or subject as its antecedent; -- said of certain verbs; as, the witness perjured himself; I bethought myself. Applied also to pronouns of this class; reciprocal; reflective. -- Re*flex"ive*ly, adv. -- Re*flex"ive*ness, n.