Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb Earlier in time.
- adverb In front; ahead.
- preposition Previous to in time; earlier than.
- preposition In front of.
- preposition In store for; awaiting.
- preposition Into or in the presence of.
- preposition Under the consideration or jurisdiction of.
- preposition In a position superior to.
- conjunction In advance of the time when.
- conjunction Rather than; sooner than.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In front; on the anterior or fore side; on the side opposite the back; in a position or at a point in advance; ahead.
- In time preceding; previously; formerly; already.
- In front of, in time or position; on the anterior or fore side of; in a position or at a point in advance of: as, a happy future lies before you; before the house; before the fire.
- In presence of; in sight of; under the cognizance, jurisdiction, or consideration of.
- In precedence of; in advance of, as regards rank, condition, development, etc.
- In preference to; rather than.
- Anterior to in time; previous to: as, I shall return before six o'clock.
- Under the action, influence, or power of.
- Figuratively and colloquially, in prosperous circumstances; out of debt or difficulty.
- Previous to the time when: formerly sometimes followed by that.
- Sooner than; rather than.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb On the fore part; in front, or in the direction of the front; -- opposed to
in the rear . - adverb In advance.
- adverb In time past; previously; already.
- adverb Earlier; sooner than; until then.
- preposition In front of; preceding in space; ahead of.
- preposition Preceding in time; earlier than; previously to; anterior to the time when; -- sometimes with the additional idea of purpose; in order that.
- preposition An advance of; farther onward, in place or time.
- preposition Prior or preceding in dignity, order, rank, right, or worth; rather than.
- preposition In presence or sight of; face to face with; facing.
- preposition Under the cognizance or jurisdiction of.
- preposition Open for; free of access to; in the power of.
- preposition (Naut.) as a common sailor, -- because the sailors live in the forecastle, forward of the foremast.
- preposition (Naut.) in the direction of the wind and by its impulse; having the wind aft.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- preposition Earlier than (in time).
- preposition In front of in space.
- preposition Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
- preposition In store for, in the future of (someone).
- preposition In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.
- preposition At a higher or greater position in a subjective ranking.
- adverb at an earlier time
- adverb in advance
- conjunction in advance of the time when
- conjunction informal
rather orsooner than
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb at or in the front
- adverb earlier in time; previously
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word before.
Examples
-
What this bill does do, in my opinion, is to cover a looming problem of insurance premiums spiking as the boomers age (ie. attempting to get a handle on a financial crisis *before* it takes down a great number of decent people) and a populist desire to insure and care for a majority of people (this comes before you start pus polling and scaring seniors with lies about Medicare coverage).
-
I started her treatment a month back , I also continue with my insulin, she gave me a greenish herbal powder , that has to sorted into daily dosages twice before meals, along with a tablet Triglucord Forte ..before I visited her I took my blood sugar levels ..
Archive 2009-07-01 photographerno1 2009
-
_Scene as before, Time and situation as before, Company as before_.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, June 6, 1891 Various
-
But before any one settles down into a conclusion that this passage warrants the use of wine and ardent spirits, in our age and country, let him consider that there may have been, as there doubtless were, peculiar reasons, under the Levitical dispensation, for permitting the Jews to partake of what their soul desired _before the Lord_, which would not apply to mankind generally; as was the case in respect to several other things.
Select Temperance Tracts American Tract Society
-
The president answered the modest doctor with as much politeness as presence of mind: he put the figure 1 before the number 100, and wrote (1100) "_They are ten times what they were before_."
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 469, January 1, 1831 Various
-
Jordan, he instructed them how the ark of the covenant was to go before them and a space to be left between them and it, so that they might know the way by which they must go, _for they had not passed this way before_.
Cambridge Essays on Education Various
-
(A.D. 494) appointed the confession of faith to be made immediately before baptism, _though the renunciations were made some hours before_.
The Ceremonies of the Holy-Week at Rome Charles Michael Baggs
-
My memory does not serve me so as to enable me to state, whether the Acdazeer's visit to Java was before or after the promulgation of the law prohibiting ships with opium and warlike stores entering any of the ports of Netherlands India; but I think it was _before_ that regulation was made public.
Trade and Travel in the Far East or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, Singapore, Australia and China. G. F. Davidson
-
The case was tried before a Justice of the Peace, named Basnett, who was satisfied that Mitchum was Davis's slave, and had left his service _nineteen years before_.
The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims Anti-Slavery Tracts No. 18 American Anti-Slavery Society
-
FELLOW-CITIZENS of the United States: In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of his office.
whichbe commented on the word before
A contronym: both "in the past" (behind) and standing in front of.
May 14, 2008
bilby commented on the word before
"'Back there is Capatain Marat of the ChronoGuard,' continued Braxton. Marat looked at me with interest. The ChronoGuard were the SpecOps division that took care of Anomalous time Ripplation - my father was one or is one or would be one, depending on how you looked at it.
'Have we met before? I asked him.
'Not yet,' he replied."
- Jasper Fforde, 'Lost In A Good Book'.
November 24, 2008
oroboros commented on the word before
bEfoRE
July 30, 2009