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Precedent. [Obs.] Bacon.

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…

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

contrasted with an ultimate analysis. -- Proximate cause. (a) A cause which immediately precedes and produces the effect, as distinguished from the remote, mediate, or predisposing cause. I. Watts. (b) That which in ordinary natural sequence produces a specific result, no independent disturbing agencies intervening.…

s through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents. De Quincey.

That which holds back, or causes to recede; a drawback; a hindrance.

Any insect in that stage of its metamorphosis which usually immediately precedes the adult, or imago, stage.

e ranks, to supply the whole number, or a competent number. -- To take rank of, to have precedence over, or to have the right of taking a higher place than.pull rank, to insist on one's own prerogative or plan of action, by right of a higher rank than that of one suggesting a different plan

x signifying back, against, again, anew; as, recline, to lean back; recall, to call back; recede; remove; reclaim, to call out against; repugn, to fight against; recognition, a knowing again; rejoin, to join again; reiterate, reassure. Combinations containing the prefix re- are readily formed, and are for the most part…

or due to some physical action, by which bodies, or the particles of bodies, are made to recede from each other, or to resist each other's nearer approach; as, molecular repulsion; electrical repulsion.

To start back; to recoil; to recede from a purpose. J. Ellis.

To recede; to fall or bend back; as, the shore of the sea retires in bays and gulfs.

litanies before in use. Hooker. Rogation days (Eccl.), the three days which immediately precede Ascension Day; -- so called as being days on which the people, walking in procession, sang litanies of special supplication. -- Rogation flower (Bot.), a European species of milkwort (Polygala vulgaris); -- so called from…

st of the four parts forming the upper surface of a thoracic segment of an insect. It is preceded by the prescutum and followed by the scutellum. See the Illust. under Thorax.

Being of the same kind as another that has preceded; another, like a protype; as, a second Cato; a second Troy; a second deluge. A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel! Shak. Second Adventist. See Adventist. -- Second cousin, the child of a cousin. -- Second-cut file. See under File. -- Second distance (Art), that p…

ressing the senses; suggesting pictures or images of sense. To this poetry would be made precedent, as being less subtle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate. Milton.

e French metaphysicians) sentiment as synonymous with feeling; a use of the word quite unprecedented in our tongue. Stewart. Less of sentiment than sense. Tennyson.

ame of any person, written with his own hand, employed to signify that the writing which precedes accords with his wishes or intentions; a sign manual; an autograph.

has been appointed king's or queen's counsel; hence, the counsel himself. Such a one has precedence over mere barristers, who wear stuff gowns. [Eng.] -- Silk grass (Bot.), a kind of grass (Stipa comata) of the Western United States, which has very long silky awns. The name is also sometimes given to various species of…

l familiarity, addressed to a man or boy, but sometimes to a woman. In sililoquies often preceded by ah. Not used in the plural. "Ah, sirrah mistress." Beau & Fl. Go, sirrah, to my cell. Shak.