before — English Dictionary

Preposition

1. Earlier than (in time).

   Synonyms

   byno later thanprevious toprior toanteere

   Antonyms

   afterlater than

   Examples

   I want this done before Monday.

   We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.

2. In front of in space.

   Synonyms

   ahead ofin front of

   Antonyms

   behind

   Examples

   He stood before me.

   We sat before the fire to warm ourselves.

   More examples (3)

   His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.

   He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.[…]But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again[…]she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.

   The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

3. In the presence of.

   Examples

   He performed before the troops in North Africa.

   He spoke before a joint session of Congress.

4. Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).

   Examples

   The case laid before the panel aroused nothing but ridicule.

   If a suit be begun before an archdeacon[…]

5. In store for, in the future of (someone).

   Examples

   Your whole life is before you.

   The golden age[…]is before us.

   More examples (1)

   There is an Eternity behind thee as well as one before. Hast thou bewailed the aeons that passed without thee, who art so much afraid of the aeons that shall pass?

6. In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.

   Synonyms

   ahead of

   Antonyms

   after

   Examples

   In alphabetical order, "cat" comes before "dog", "canine" before feline".

7. At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.

   Examples

   An entrepreneur puts market share and profit before quality, and amateur intrinsic qualities before economical considerations.

   He that cometh after me is preferred before me.

Adverb

1. At an earlier time.

   Usage

   • not-comparable

   Synonyms

   previously

   Antonyms

   after

   Examples

   I've never done this before.

   This achievement far exceeded anything that had come before.

   More examples (1)

   All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

2. In advance in position or sequence; ahead.

   Usage

   • Literary
   • not-comparable
   • Poetic

   Synonyms

   ahead

   Examples

   We walked behind while they went before.

3. At the front end.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • Uncommon

   Synonyms

   in front

   Antonyms

   behind

   Examples

   When people call this beast to mind, They marvel more and more At such a little tail behind, So LARGE a trunk before.

Conjunction

1. In advance of the time when.

   Synonyms

   no later than

   Antonyms

   after

   Examples

   Near-synonym: no later than

   Brush your teeth before you go to bed.

   More examples (2)

   But before this elaborate treatise can become of universal use and ornament to my native country, two points[…] are absolutely necessary.

   Stephen Ward then had to time his tackle excellently to deny Tarmo Kink as the Wolves winger slid the ball out of play before the Estonian could attempt to beat Given.

2. Rather or sooner than.

   Usage

   • Informal

   Synonyms

   as soon as

   Examples

   I'll die before I('ll) tell you anything about it.

Noun

1. Of before-and-after images: the one that shows the difference before a specified treatment.

   Examples

   More examples (3)

   On the left of the double column of photographs are the “befores.” Look at them! Fine boys all, yet here is an unformed mouth; there, a fine face just missing strength by a slight over-plumpness of feature; below, a clever face just a shade too “smart”; on the next page, a form too slight and beginning to stoop. On the right are the “afters.”

   I told them that I was taking part in a ‘Before and After’ feature for the magazine. The beauty editor had picked a couple of girls in the office to experiment on. ‘I always think that the befores look better than the afters in that kind of experiment,’ Aunt G said.

   Sometimes we’d agree the person looked better in their before. Happier somehow. More themselves before the muscles. […] Other times we’d laugh at the befores. I’d make a crack, something like, “People should need a special government ID to buy spandex like that. It’s a question of public safety.”

2. That which occurred or existed previously.

   Usage

   • often
   • Poetic
   • Uncommon

   Examples

   More examples (6)

   As all are commanded to yield like the mummy when the dung beetle rolls the sun / before all the befores of the trillion nights past night and day / though I knew that the broken receding mouth of the Sphinx had nothing to add / of resurrection in the history of its grimace.

   Your music has lasted since the beginning of the world. A stone was born in the waters. […] Voice rising to heaven, pure music, green primal root, mother-sea, before all the befores.

   Yet when I was a child, I stood with my mother on that distant shore, or walked with her up the road, past orchards of plums and pears, past fields narrow as piano keys. To the village where she was born, and her mother before her; all other mothers, all the befores that ever were.

   Because we’re in debt to that before, to all the befores where the life was before the words. Every time we pick up a hammer and a nail there’s a dead man in it who built a lean-to out of the weather in Wyoming in December or a farmer in Latin America someplace on the back of a mule-drawn cart broken down with a town’s vegetables rotting in the sun or a Mennonite right over there in McGaheysville this minute saying no to some nigh useless particle board siding and still fashioning his house with his hand.

   For high in the brightest tower of Light Castle, one thing shone still brighter—the Princess of Light! She came from before all the befores, from a place that is no place. Not fire. Not water. Not air. Not earth. No place. Neither solid, nor liquid, nor gas. Nothing to speak of.

   The packing that took all week to finish had also taken her mind off Mike. Less and less she found herself weeping. Her focus was on the nexts. There was little time now to think about all the befores. Today would put an end to the last leftover one.

   We talk about all the befores. The stupid things we did. The funny things. The times she made us laugh.

3. A previous form or instance.

   Usage

   • Rare

   Examples

   More examples (3)

   A big wind blew all their befores away. Impacted teeth grew over their names. Even the lines in their hands unraveled, these are the lines they stand in to ask for their hands back.

   I guess I should have known from all the befores / that when it’s all said and done / I don’t want to be / I won’t stand to be / I refuse to be / anything but YOURS

   They were chatting and laughing and it made my heart hurt. They were getting out. Returning to whatever their befores were. They didn’t even glance back at the house as they climbed into the waiting vehicles.

Adverb

1. earlier in time; previously

   Synonyms

   earlier

   Examples

   I had known her before

   as I said before

   More examples (3)

   he called me the day before but your call had come even earlier

   her parents had died four years earlier

   I mentioned that problem earlier

2. at or in the front

   Synonyms

   aheadin front

   Examples

   I see the lights of a town ahead

   the road ahead is foggy

   More examples (3)

   staring straight ahead

   we couldn't see over the heads of the people in front

   with the cross of Jesus marching on before