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To calculate or determine beforehand; to prearrange. Masson.

have precedence of commoners. Which of them [the different desires] has the precedency in determining the will to the next action Locke.

A judicial decision which serves as a rule for future determinations in similar or analogous cases; an authority to be followed in courts of justice; forms of proceeding to be followed in similar cases. Wharton.

Having determinate limitations; exactly or sharply defined or stated; definite; exact; nice; not vague or equivocal; as, precise rules of morality. The law in this point is not precise. Bacon. For the hour precise Exacts our parting hence. Milton.

by anticipative action; to prevent or hinder by necessary consequence or implication; to deter action of, access to, employment of, etc.; to render ineffectual; to obviate by anticipation. This much will obviate and preclude the objections. Bentley.

To design or purpose beforehand; to predetermine. Mitford.

To predetermine or foreordain; to appoint or ordain beforehand by an unchangeable purpose or decree; to preëlect. Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Rom. viii. 29.

Determining beforehand; predestinating. [R.] Coleridge.

Of or pertaining to the determination of some matter not previously decided; as, a prejudical inquiry or action at law.

To determine beforehand, especially to disadvantage; to prejudge. Our dearest friend Prejudicates the business. Shak.

A preliminary inquiry and determination about something which belongs to a matter in dispute.

To ordain or appoint beforehand: to predetermine: to foreordain. Milton.

Antecedent decree or determination. Shak.

The act of foreordaining: previous determination. "The preordination of God." Bale.

To resolve beforehand; to predetermine. Sir E. Dering.

Any proceeding designed to ascertain truth, to determine character, qualification, etc.; examination; trial; as, to engage a person on probation. Hence, specifically: (a) The novitiate which a person must pass in a convent, to probe his or her virtue and ability to bear the severities of the rule. (b) The trial of a mi…

A mediæval method of determining of the proportionate duration of semibreves and minims. Busby.

ised land. See Land of promise, under Land. -- To promise one's self. (a) To resolve; to determine; to vow. (b) To be assured; to have strong confidence. I dare promise myself you will attest the truth of all I have advanced. Rambler.

An organism whose nature is so difficult to determine that it might be referred to either the animal or the vegetable kingdom.

tural causes of it [the deluge]. T. Burnet. Proximate analysis (Chem.), an analysis which determines the proximate principles of any substance, as contrasted with an ultimate analysis. -- Proximate cause. (a) A cause which immediately precedes and produces the effect, as distinguished from the remote, mediate, or pred…