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The act of presupposing; an antecedent implication; presumption.

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

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.

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

Previous; antecedent. Glanvill.

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.

Indicating or expressing relation; refering to an antecedent; as, a relative pronoun.

To subtract by arithmetical operation; to deduct. If, out of that infinite multitude of antecedent generations, we should subduce ten. Sir M. Hale.

d adjectively, but always as a pronoun proper, and sometimes refers to persons without an antecedent expressed. Jolif and glad they went unto here [their] rest And casten hem [them] full early for to sail. Chaucer. They of Italy salute you. Heb. xiii. 24. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.…

The antecedent of trypsin, a substance which is contained in the cells of the pancreas and gives rise to the trypsin.

Having no antecedent cause; uncreated; self-existent; eternal. A. Baxter.

Used substantively with the antecedent suppressed, equivalent to that which, or those [persons] who, or those [things] which; -- called a compound relative. With joy beyond what victory bestows. Cowper. I'm thinking Captain Lawton will count the noses of what are left before they see their whaleboats. Cooper. What foll…

From what place; hence, from what or which source, origin, antecedent, premise, or the like; how; -- used interrogatively. Whence hath this man this wisdom Matt. xiii. 54. Whence and what art thou Milton.

A relative pronoun, used esp. in referring to an antecedent noun or clause, but sometimes with reference to what is specified or implied in a sentence, or to a following noun or clause (generally involving a reference, however, to something which has preceded). It is used in all numbers and genders, and was formerly us…

A mother substance, or antecedent, of an enzyme or chemical ferment; -- applied to such substances as, not being themselves actual ferments, may by internal changes give rise to a ferment. The pancreas contains but little ready-made ferment, though there is present in it a body, zymogen, which gives birth to the fermen…