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.

By way of preparation, or preliminary; previously; aforetime. They may be taught beforehand the skill of speaking. Hooker.

A large bar of steel formed directly from an ingot by hammering or rolling, being a preliminary shape for further working.

e primitive church, one officially recognized as a Christian, and admitted to instruction preliminary to admission to full membership in the church.

A meeting, especially a preliminary meeting, of persons belonging to a party, to nominate candidates for public office, or to select delegates to a nominating convention, or to confer regarding measures of party policy; a political primary meeting. This day learned that the caucus club meets, at certain times, in the g…

Charcoal, 2. Until within a few years this material has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline, etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with it. -- Charcoal point, a carbon pencil prepared for use un an electric light apparatus. -- Mineral charcoal, a term applied to silky fibrous layers o…

To pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger by some decisive act or preliminary step; -- often used reflexively; as, to commit one's self to a certain course. You might have satisfied every duty of political friendship, without commiting the honor of your sovereign. Junius. Any sudden assent to the proposal .…

y in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission to membership of a church; a confession of faith.

An agreement or contract less formal than, or preliminary to, a traety; an informal compact, as between commanders of armies in respect to suspension of hostilities, or between states; also, a formal agreement between governments or sovereign powers; as, a postal convetion between two governments. This convention, I th…

A preliminary layer, as of color, size, etc.

To draw preliminary outline or main features of; to sketch for a pattern or model; to delineate; to trace out; to draw. Dryden.

To shed an old covering or condition preliminary to taking on a new one; to molt. There is reason to suppose that very old crayfish do not exuviate every year. Huxley.

ump of calcined glass materials, brought to a pasty condition in a reverberatory furnace, preliminary to the perfect vitrification in the melting pot.

ll not carry the aggregate count above thirty-one. Great go, Little go, the final and the preliminary examinations for a degree. [Slang, Eng. Univ.] -- No go, a failure; a fiasco. [Slang] Thackeray. -- On the go, moving about; unsettled. [Colloq.]

Serving to initiate; inceptive; initiatory; introductory; preliminary.

rt of a book or discourse which introduces or leads the way to the main subject, or part; preliminary; matter; preface; proem; exordium.

Serving to introduce something else; leading to the main subject or business; preliminary; prefatory; as, introductory proceedings; an introductory discourse.

That part of theological science directly preliminary to actual exegesis, or interpretation of the Scriptures.

A preliminary or auxiliary proposition demonstrated or accepted for immediate use in the demonstration of some other proposition, as in mathematics or logic.

A verdict on a preliminary investigation, finding the fact of a crime but not stating the criminal, or finding the fact of a violent death without disclosing the cause.