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Antecedent; preceding in time. "Capable of antecedaneous proof." Barrow.

Prior date; a date antecedent to another which is the actual date.

Before in time; antecedent. Antigonus, who was anterior to Polybius. Sir G. C. Lewis.

Any edentate animal if the family Dasypidæ, peculiar to America. The body and head are incased in an armor composed of small bony plates. The armadillos burrow in the earth, seldom going abroad except at night. When attacked, they curl up into a ball, presenting the armor on all sides. Their flesh is good food. There a…

A precedent; a decision of a court, an official declaration, or an opinion, saying, or statement worthy to be taken as a precedent.

Of or pertaining to the sea which separates Norway and Sweden from Jutland, Denmark, and Germany; situated on the Baltic Sea.

A dignity or degree of honor next below a baron and above a knight, having precedency of all orders of knights except those of the Garter. It is the lowest degree of honor that is hereditary. The baronets are commoners.

e, resembling fine flour. It is composed of the shells of infusoria, and in Lapland and Sweden is sometimes eaten, mixed with flour or ground birch bark, in times of scarcity. This name is also given to a white powdery variety of calcite.

One who has a claim to precedence; a superior, as in merit, social standing, etc.; -- usually in the plural. Their betters would hardly be found. Hooker. For the better, in the way of improvement; so as to produce improvement. "If I have altered him anywhere for the better." Dryden.

f euchre and some other games, an extra card sometimes added to the pack, which takes precedence of all others as the highest card.

A kind of fox found in Sweden (Vulpes alopex), smaller than the common fox (V. vulgaris), but probably a variety of it.

See Edentata.

ll really belonged to the deposit in which it was found. If it did, it indicates an unprecedented antiquity for human beings of an advanced type.

A former gold coin of Germany worth nearly five dollars; also, a gold coin of Sweden worth nearly five dollars.

n several ratios of equality are given, the consequent of each being the same as the antecedent of the next, the relation between the first antecedent and the last consequent is discovered. -- Chain shot (Mil.), two cannon balls united by a shot chain, formerly used in naval warfare on account of their destructive eff…

A small South American edentate (Chlamyphorus truncatus, and C. retusus) allied to the armadillo. It is covered with a leathery shell or coat of mail, like a cloak, attached along the spine.

e quality of being cogent; power of compelling conviction; conclusiveness; force. An antecedent argument of extreme cogency. J. H. Newman.

Conjugal. [R.] Swedenborg.

The second term of a ratio, as the term b in the ratio a:b, the first a, being the antecedent.

taken into account as a ground of opinion or action; motive; reason. He was obliged, antecedent to all other considerations, to search an asylum. Dryden. Some considerations which are necessary to the forming of a correct judgment. Macaulay.