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Going before; preceding; hence, preventive. "Prevenient grace descending." Milton.

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…

One who goes before; one who forestalls or anticipates another. [Obs.] Bacon.

The act of going, or state of being, before. [Obs.] The greater the distance, the greater the prevention. Bacon.

Going before; preceding. [Obs.] Any previous counsel or preventive understanding. Cudworth.

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.

To inform beforehand; to warn. Ld. Lytton.

To warn beforehand; to forewarn. [R.]

Of or pertaining to the day before, or yesterday. [R.] Thackeray.

putation for injury performed as soon as the shock due to the injury has passed away, and before symptoms of inflammation supervene. -- Primary axis (Bot.), the main stalk which bears a whole cluster of flowers. -- Primary colors. See under Color. -- Primary meeting, a meeting of citizens at which the first steps ar…

To prepare; to make ready; to instruct beforehand; to post; to coach; as, to prime a witness; the boys are primed for mischief. [Colloq.] Thackeray.

ng wire, a pointed wire used to penetrate the vent of a piece, for piercing the cartridge before priming.

r Color. -- Primitive Fathers (Eccl.), the acknowledged Christian writers who flourished before the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. Shipley. -- Primitive groove (Anat.), a depression or groove in the epiblast of the primitive streak. It is not connected with the medullary groove, which appears later and in front of it.…

uperior rank. Shak. Priority of debts, a superior claim to payment, or a claim to payment before others.

England, of taking two tuns of wine from every ship importing twenty tuns or more, -- one before and one behind the mast. By charter of Edward I. butlerage was substituted for this. Blackstone.

A prefix signifying before, in front, forth, for, in behalf of, in place of, according to; as, propose, to place before; proceed, to go before or forward; project, to throw forward; prologue, part spoken before (the main piece); propel, prognathous; provide, to look out for; pronoun, a word instead of a noun; proconsul…

A Latin preposition signifying for, before, forth. Pro confesso Etym: [L.] (Law), taken as confessed. The action of a court of equity on that portion of the pleading in a particular case which the pleading on the other side does not deny. -- Pro rata. Etym: [L. See Prorate.] In proportion; proportion. -- Pro re nata…

ainst it. South. I do not say that the principles of religion are merely probable; I have before asserted them to be morally certain. Bp. Wilkins.

Official proof; especially, the proof before a competent officer or tribunal that an instrument offered, purporting to be the last will and testament of a person deceased, is indeed his lawful act; the copy of a will proved, under the seal of the Court of Probate, delivered to the executors with a certificate of its ha…