Search the Dictionary

Introductory; previous; preceding the main discourse or business; prefatory; as, preliminary observations to a discourse or book; preliminary articles to a treaty; preliminary measures; preliminary examinations.

To limit previously. [R.]

To introduce with a previous performance; to play or perform a prelude to; as, to prelude a concert with a lively air.

To think on, and revolve in the mind, beforehand; to contrive and design previously; as, to premeditate robbery. With words premeditated thus he said. Dryden.

The act of meditating or contriving beforehand; previous deliberation; forethought.

, Previous to the millennium.

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.

Previous warning or admonition; forewarning. Sir H. Wotton.

Previous warning, notice, or information; forewarning; as, a premonition of danger.

Giving previous warning or notice; as, premonitory symptoms of disease. -- Pre*mon"i*to*ri*ly, adv.

Previous motion or excitement to action.

A notice or notion which precedes something else in time; previous notion or thought; foreknowledge. Bacon.

Opinion previously formed; prepossession; prejudice. Sir T. Browne.

The act of foreordaining: previous determination. "The preordination of God." Bale.

of preparing or fitting beforehand for a particular purpose, use, service, or condition; previous arrangement or adaptation; a making ready; as, the preparation of land for a crop of wheat; the preparation of troops for a campaign.

That which has the power of preparing, or previously fitting for a purpose; that which prepares. "A preparative unto sermons." Hooker.

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.

To make one's self ready; to get ready; to take the necessary previous measures; as, to prepare for death.

To preoccupy, as ground or land; to take previous possession of. Dryden.

ccupation of the mind by an opinion, or impression, already formed; preconceived opinion; previous impression; bias; -- generally, but not always, used in a favorable sense; as, the prepossessions of childhood. "The prejudices and prepossessions of the country." Sir W. Scott.