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tides receding from the instituted shore. Dryden. All bodies moved circularly endeavor to recede from the center. Bentley.

To go before in order of time; to occur first with relation to anything. "Harm precedes not sin." Milton.

act or state of preceding or going before in order of time; priority; as, one event has precedence of another.

Going before; anterior; preceding; antecedent; as, precedent services. Shak. "A precedent injury." Bacon. Condition precedent (Law), a condition which precede the vesting of an estate, or the accruing of a right.

Having a precedent; authorized or sanctioned by an example of a like kind. Walpole.

Of the nature of a precedent; having force as an example for imitation; as, precedential transactions. All their actions in that time are not precedential to warrant posterity. Fuller.

Beforehand; antecedently.

Having no precedent or example; not preceded by a like case; not having the authority of prior example; novel; new; unexampled. -- Un*prec"e*dent*ed*ly, adv.

To approach; to come forward; -- opposed to recede. [Obs.] T. Gale.

Voluntary or spontaneous motion or impulse to act; -- preceded by own; as, of one's own accord. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap. Lev. xxv. 5. Of his own accord he went unto you. 2 Cor. vii. 17.

erience written in his wrinkles. Hawthorne. Advanced guard, a detachment of troops which precedes the march of the main body.

Later in time; subsequent; as, after supper, after three days. It often precedes a clause. Formerly that was interposed between it and the clause. After I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Matt. xxvi. 32.

; opposite to; facing; towards; as, against the mouth of a river; -- in this sense often preceded by over. Jacob saw the angels of God come against him. Tyndale.

A usage, among diplomats, of rotation in precedence among representatives of equal rank, sometimes determined by lot and at other times in regular order. The practice obtains in the signing of treaties and conventions between nations.

To go before in time or place; to precede; to surpass. Sir M. Hale.

The act or state of going before in time; precedence. H. Spenser.

That which goes before in time; that which precedes. South. The Homeric mythology, as well as the Homeric language, has surely its antecedents. Max Miller.

A name given to that part of the Anglican liturgy for the communion, which precedes the consecration of the elements.

To precede in time.

A number that precedes another. [R.] Bacon.