Search the Dictionary

Preceding in the order of time; former; antecedent; anterior; previous; as, a prior discovery; prior obligation; -- used elliptically in cases like the following: he lived alone [in the time] prior to his marriage.

The dignity, office, or government, of a prior. T. Warton.

A lady superior of a priory of nuns, and next in dignity to an abbess.

The quality or state of being prior or antecedent in time, or of preceding something else; as, priority of application.

Previously. [R.] Geddes.

The state or office of prior; priorate.

A religious house presided over by a prior or prioress; -- sometimes an offshoot of, an subordinate to, an abbey, and called also cell, and obedience. See Cell, 2.

Applied to knowledge and conceptions assumed, or presupposed, as prior to experience, in order to make experience rational or possible. A priori, that is, form these necessities of the mind or forms of thinking, which, though first revealed to us by experience, must yet have preëxisted in order to make experience possi…

An a priori principle.

The quality of being innate in the mind, or prior to experience; a priori reasoning.

The vicegerent of a prior; a claustral officer who assists the prior.

es at principles and definitions, or infers causes from effects. This is the reverse of a priori reasoning.

dly; over a wide space; as, a tree spreads its branches abroad. The fox roams far abroad. Prior.

a plain accent." Shak. "A perfect accent." Thackeray. The tender accent of a woman's cry. Prior.

In a suitable manner. [R.] Prior.

t made by another, and distinguishable from a confession in that an admission presupposes prior inquiry by another, but a confession may be made without such inquiry.

Down. [Archaic & Poetic] Her hair adown her shoulders loosely lay displayed. Prior.

ressing. "Jove's afflictive hand." Pope. Spreads slow disease, and darts afflictive pain. Prior.

oaded and blest with all the affluent store, Which human vows at smoking shrines implore. Prior.

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.