English Dictionary: earlier | by the DICT Development Group |
2 results for earlier | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Early \Ear"ly\, a. [Compar. {Earlier} ([etil]r"l[icr]*[etil]r); superl. {Earliest}.] [OE. earlich. [root]204. See {Early}, adv.] 1. In advance of the usual or appointed time; in good season; prior in time; among or near the first; -- opposed to {late}; as, the early bird; an early spring; early fruit. Early and provident fear is the mother of safety. --Burke. The doorsteps and threshold with the early grass springing up about them. --Hawthorne. 2. Coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the first of successive acts, events, etc. Seen in life's early morning sky. --Keble. The forms of its earlier manhood. --Longfellow. The earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth summer. --J. C. Shairp. {Early English} (Philol.) See the Note under {English}. {Early English architecture}, the first of the pointed or Gothic styles used in England, succeeding the Norman style in the 12th and 13th centuries. Syn: Forward; timely; not late; seasonable. |