Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Occurring, growing, or existing before the customary, correct, or assigned time; uncommonly or unexpectedly early.
- adjective Born after a gestation period of less than the normal time.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Arriving too early at maturity; mature or ripe before the proper time; hence, coming into existence or occurring too soon; too early; untimely; overhasty.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Mature or ripe before the proper time.
- adjective Happening, arriving, existing, or performed before the proper or usual time; adopted too soon; too early; untimely
- adjective Arriving or received without due authentication or evidence.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Occurring before a state of
readiness ormaturity has arrived. - adjective Taking place
earlier thananticipated ,prepared for, ordesired . - adjective informal Suffering from
premature ejaculation .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective uncommonly early or before the expected time
- adjective born after a gestation period of less than the normal time
- adjective too soon or too hasty
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The most general and inclusive way in which to designate all the phenomena that sociology proper considers, without importing into the term premature hypotheses by way of explanation, is to assert that they are the phenomena of "contact" between persons.
Introduction to the Science of Sociology Robert Ezra Park 1926
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Mr. Bush warned against what he called a premature withdrawal of U.S. forces, saying the troop increase he ordered needs time to work.
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Mr. Bush will repeat his mantra about the harm he says withdrawing troops prematurely would cause and vow not to set what he calls premature deadlines.
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In a statement in Pretoria CP leader Dr Ferdi Hartzenberg also cautioned against what he called the premature outlining of borders for such a "volkstaat".
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So, the chairman of the commission died pretty young, in his early 40's from what I call premature senility, that is, arteriosclerosis, which is unusual, but he did and died very suddenly.
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Now sir, that is what I call a premature judgment!
The Man With The Broken Ear Edmond About 1856
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Train traffic had been worsened Tuesday by a wildcat strike by Belgian train drivers protesting what they called the premature blaming of one their own for the accident.
WCAX - Local News 2010
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Train traffic had been worsened Tuesday by a wildcat strike by Belgian train drivers protesting what they called the premature blaming of one their own for the accident.
Fore, right! ARTHUR MAX 2010
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Trustee Kirsten Livak apologized to audience members about what she described as a premature announcement.
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Train traffic had been worsened Tuesday by a wildcat strike by Belgian train drivers protesting what they called the premature blaming of one their own for the accident.
The Seattle Times 2010
bilby commented on the word premature
"We have news that 17 Battery has had a premature. No one killed but one gunner injured. This was strange as the gun had just come back from workshops, where it had been repaired for a previous premature."
- Spike Milligan, 'Mussolini: My Part In His Downfall.'
April 19, 2009