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Prior; earlier; former. [Obs.] Now no man dwelleth at the rather town. Sir J. Mandeville.

Given to action rather than contemplation; practical; operative; - - opposed to Ant: speculative or Ant: theoretical; as, an active rather than a speculative statesman.

One who deals with or considers actually existing facts and conditions, rather than fancies or theories; -- opposed to idealist. J. Grote.

gard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [Archaic] Examples rather to be admired than imitated. Fuller.

To love; to regard with affection. [Obs.] As for Queen Katharine, he rather respected than affected, rather honored than loved, her. Fuller.

; -- said of an illegitimate child; as, to affiliate the child to (or on or upon) one man rather than another.

rty years, and never age for all that. Holland. I am aging; that is, I have a whitish, or rather a light-colored, hair here and there. Landor.

avate the horrors of the scene. Prescott. The defense made by the prisioner's counsel did rather aggravate than extenuate his crime. Addison.

ton. "Amidst acclamations." "Amidst the splendor and festivity of a court." Macaulay. But rather famish them amid their plenty. Shak.

Rather quicker than andante; between that allegretto.

To excite to anger; to enrage; to provoke. Taxes and impositions . . . which rather angered than grieved the people. Clarendon.

To anticipate; to make before the true time. And antedate the bliss above. Pope. Who rather rose the day to antedate. Wordsworth.

One taken at random rather than by selection; anybody.

perception or estimation so obtained; an immediate apprehension or insight, appreciative rather than analytic.

principle expressed in a few words; a sharply defined sentence relating to abstract truth rather than to practical matters. The first aphorism of Hippocrates is, "Life is short, and the art is long." Fleming.

ating to an issue of fulfillment. In this way a passage in the Old Testament may have, or rather comprise, an apotelesmatic sense, i. e., one of after or final accomplishment. M. Stuart.

t another for some heinous crime demanding punishment for the particular injury suffered, rather than for the offense against the public.

of the original type of a species in the progeny of its varieties; resemblance to remote rather than to near ancestors; reversion to the original form.

One whose thoughts take the form of mental sounds or of internal discourse rather than of visual or motor images.

d instability of purpose, which makes them choose the wandering avocations of a shepherd, rather than the more fixed pursuits of agriculture. Buckle.