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In the western United States, one who settles on government land before it is legally open to settlement in order to gain the prior claim that the law gives to the first settler when the land is opened to settlement; hence, any one who does a thing prematurely or anticipates another in acting in order to gain an unfair…

Oklahoma; -- a nickname.

Anything closely or usually connected with another; an concomitant. The one [idea] no sooner comes into the understanding, than its associate appears with it. Locke.

A fence or railing to mark the limits of a place, or to keep back a crowd. No sooner were the barriers opened, than he paced into the lists. Sir W. Scott.

Earlier; sooner than; until then. When the butt is out, we will drink water; not a drop before. Shak.

r new, the sense can not inform; but if you boil them in water, the new seeds will sprout sooner. Bacon. To boil down, to reduce in bulk by boiling; as, to boil down sap or sirup.

ys of sense, Lie in three words -- health, peace, and competence. Pope. Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer. Shak.

ness; civility; urbanity; courtliness. And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, With oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, With smoky rafters, than in tapestry walls And courts of princes, where it first was named, And yet is most pretended. Milton. Pardon me, Messer Claudio, if once more I use the ancient courtesies of sp…

e of crime; the cradle of liberty. The cradle that received thee at thy birth. Cowper. No sooner was I crept out of my cradle But I was made a king, at nine months old. Shak.

adily, as a child in leading strings, or just learning to walk; to move slowly. [Obs.] No sooner taught to dade, but from their mother trip. Drayton.

Not yielding. Medicines used unnecessarily contribute to shorten life, by sooner rendering peculiar parts of the system disobedient to stimuli. E. Darwin.

A suffix used to form the comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs; as, warmer, sooner, lat(e)er, earl(y)ier.

Before; sooner than. [Archaic or Poetic] Myself was stirring ere the break of day. Shak. Ere sails were spread new oceans to explore. Dryden. Sir, come down ere my child die. John iv. 49.

and exhibit clearly and satisfactorily; to develop; to derive; to educe. The animal soul sooner evolves itself to its full orb and extent than the human soul. Sir. M. Hale. The principles which art involves, science alone evolves. Whewell. Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descend…

x, which at the Nicene Council fell on the 21st of March, falls now [1694] about ten days sooner. Holder.

To fly out; to turn out; to go off. [Obs.] A wench is a rare bait, with which a man No sooner's taken but he straight firks mad.B.Jonson.

mmonly, easy elegance of manners; perfection of form. Grace in women gains the affections sooner, and secures them longer, than any thing else. Hazlitt. I shall answer and thank you again For the gift and the grace of the gift. Longfellow.

street." As an adjective, suitable to, or resembling the production of, Grub Street. I 'd sooner ballads write, and grubstreet lays. Gap.

ion; as, an aftermath. [Obs.] The first mowing thereof, for the king's use, is wont to be sooner than the common math. Bp. Hall.

Ere; before; sooner than. [Obs.] But natheless, while I have time and space, Or that I forther in this tale pace. Chaucer. Or ever, Or ere. See under Ever, and Ere.