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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.

The quality or state of being previous; priority or antecedence in time.

ences from definitions formed, or principles assumed, or which infers effects from causes previously known; deductive or deductively. The reverse of a posteriori.

, or apparently satisfied, or to rest without opposition and discontent (usually implying previous opposition or discontent); to accept or consent by silence or by omitting to object; -- followed by in, formerly also by with and to. They were compelled to acquiesce in a government which they did not regard as just. De…

Prepared; previously provided; -- opposed to behindhand. [Archaic or Dial.] Aforehand in all matters of power. Bacon.

Previously mentioned; before-mentioned. Addison.

Premeditated; prepense; previously in mind; designed; as, malice aforethought, which is required to constitute murder. Bouvier.

Prior to some specified time, either past, present, or future; by this time; previously. "Joseph was in Egypt already." Exod. i. 5. I say unto you, that Elias is come already. Matt. xvii. 12.

ternate. Milton. Altern base (Trig.), a second side made base, in distinction from a side previously regarded as base.

surface and the head and beak in line with it. Unless they become themselves infected by previously biting a subject affected with malaria, the insects cannot transmit the disease.

The earlier events of one's life; previous principles, conduct, course, history. J. H. Newman. If the troops . . . prove worthy of their antecedents, the victory is surely ours. Gen. G. McClellan.

Previously; before in time; at a time preceding; as, antecedently to conversion. Barrow.

To foretaste or foresee; to have a previous view or impression of; as, to anticipate the pleasures of a visit; to anticipate the evils of life.

Previous view or impression of what is to happen; instinctive prevision; foretaste; antepast; as, the anticipation of the joys of heaven. The happy anticipation of renewed existence in company with the spirits of the just. Thodey.

In Greek choruses and dances, the returning of the chorus, exactly answering to a previous strophe or movement from right to left. Hence: The lines of this part of the choral song. It was customary, on some occasions, to dance round the altars whilst they sang the sacred hymns, which consisted of three stanzas or parts…

to forsake one's church, the faith or principles once held, or the party to which one has previously adhered. He apostatized from his old faith in facts, took to believing in Carlyle.

A figure of speech by which the orator or writer suddenly breaks off from the previous method of his discourse, and addresses, in the second person, some person or thing, absent or present; as, Milton's apostrophe to Light at the beginning of the third book of "Paradise Lost."

eriod in geological period, extending up to the Lower Silurian. It includes an Azoic age, previous to the appearance of life, and an Eozoic age, including the earliest forms of life.

he streets. Berners. [They] were beginning to arrange their hampers. Boswell. A mechanism previously arranged. Paley.