Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To exist before (something); precede.
  • intransitive verb To exist beforehand.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To exist before something else; have a prior existence.
  • To exist in a previous state.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To exist previously; to exist before something else.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To exist before something else.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb exist beforehand or prior to a certain point in time

Etymologies

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