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The antecedent of the ferment pepsin. A substance contained in the form of granules in the peptic cells of the gastric glands. It is readily convertible into pepsin. Also called propepsin.

A small, burrowing, South American edentate (Chlamyphorus truncatus), allied to the armadillos. The shell is attached only along the back. [Written also pichyciego.]

ace. (a) To come to pass; to occur; as, the ceremony will not take place. (b) To take precedence or priority. Addison. (c) To take effect; to prevail. "If your doctrine takes place." Berkeley. "But none of these excuses would take place." Spenser. -- To take the place of, to be substituted for.

n, or of depression; the stock fell off five points; he won by tenpoints. "A point of precedence." Selden. "Creeping on from point to point." Tennyson. A lord full fat and in good point. Chaucer.

One of the two most experienced barristers in the Court of Exchequer, who have precedence in motions; -- so called from the place where he sits. The other of the two is called the tubman. Whishaw.

To place after, behind, or below something, in respect to precedence, preference, value, or importance. All other considerations should give way and be postponed to this. Locke.

A walking or going before; precedence. [R.]

Precedence of rank at the bar among lawyers. Blackstone.

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

A previous or antecedent condition; a preliminary condition.

Anticipative or antecedent conformity. Coleridge.

prominent among those who are eminent; superior in excellence; surpassing, or taking precedence of, others; rarely, surpassing others in evil, or in bad qualities; as, preëminent in guilt. In goodness and in power preëminent. Milton.

Preferring, or the state of being preferred; the setting of one thing before another; precedence; higher estimation; predilection; choice; also, the power or opportunity of choosing; as, to give him his preference. Leave the critics on either side to contend about the preference due to this or that sort of poetry. Dryd…

Giving, indicating, or having a preference or precedence; as, a preferential claim; preferential shares.

To show, suggest, or announce, by antecedent types and similitudes; to foreshadow. "Whom all the various types prefigured." South.

To set or appoint beforehand; to settle or establish antecedently. [Obs.] " Prefixed bounds. " Locke. And now he hath to her prefixt a day. Spenser.

A previous treatment and decision of a point; a precedent.

A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition. The premises observed, Thy will by my performance shall be served. Shak.

Antecedent decree or determination. Shak.

Preparing the way for anything by previous measures of adaptation; antecedent and adapted to what follows; introductory; preparative; as, a preparatory school; a preparatory condition.