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Adjoining in a series; immediately preceding or following in order. None could tell whose turn should be the next. Gay.

Following the eighteenth and preceding the twentieth; coming after eighteen others.

Following the eight and preceding the tenth; coming after eight others.

the heavens, or on the earth, ninety degrees from the equator toward the north. -- North preceding. See Following, a., 2. -- North star, the star toward which the north pole of the earth very nearly points, and which accordingly seems fixed and immovable in the sky. The star a (alpha) of the Little Bear, is our prese…

al origin of a thing. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne. Occasional cause (Metaph.), some circumstance preceding an effect which, without being the real cause, becomes the occasion of the action of the efficient cause; thus, the act of touching gunpowder with fire is the occasional, but not the efficient, cause of an explosion.…

Formerly existing; ancient; not modern; preceding; original; as, an old law; an old custom; an old promise. "The old schools of Greece." Milton. "The character of the old Ligurians." Addison.

Pertaining to the origin or beginning; preceding all others; first in order; primitive; primary; pristine; as, the original state of man; the original laws of a country; the original inventor of a process. His form had yet not lost All her original brightness. Milton.

The last syllable but one of a word; the syllable preceding the final one.

Of or pertaining to the epoch, or the deposits, following the Tertiary, and immediately preceding man. -- n.

e slender striped beetle which feeds upon the potato plant, bur does less injury than the preceding species. -- Potato fly (Zoöl.), any one of several species of blister beetles infesting the potato vine. The black species (Lytta atrata), the striped (L. vittata), and the gray (L. cinerea, or Fabricii) are the most co…

Preceding; going before; introductory. [R.] Simon Magus had preambulatory impieties. Jer. Taylor.

Preceding; antecedent; previous. [Obs.] Hammond.

The act or state of preceding or going before in order of time; priority; as, one event has precedence of another.

Going before; anterior; preceding; antecedent; as, precedent services. Shak. "A precedent injury." Bacon. Condition precedent (Law), a condition which precede the vesting of an estate, or the accruing of a right.

ate; as, water precipitates camphor when in solution with alcohol. The light vapor of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold. W. Irving.

A contract preceding another; especially (Law),

Preceding; introductory; precursory. "A deep precursive sound." Coleridge.

Preceding as a precursor or harbinger; indicating something to follow; as, precursory symptoms of a fever.

Going before; preceding. "Our predecessive students." Massinger.

Preceding the diastole of the heart; as, a prediastolic friction sound.