Prior engagement, obligation, or attachment, as by contract, promise, or affection.

To erect beforehand.

Press; throng.

To establish beforehand.

Settlement beforehand.

Infinite previous duration.

Previous examination.

To examine beforehand.

To exist previously; to exist before something else; to exist before the current activity commenced; as, preexisting illnesses are not covered by this insurance policy.

Existence in a former state, or previous to something else.

Pre/xistence.

Existing previously; preceding existence; as, a pre/xistent state.

The theory of a pre/xistence of souls before their association with human bodies.

Previous esteem or estimation.

Previous expectation.

To make a preface.

The writer of a preface.

Prefatory.

In a prefatory manner; by way of preface.

Pertaining to, or of the nature of, a preface; introductory to a book, essay, or discourse; as, prefatory remarks.

A Roman officer who controlled or superintended a particular command, charge, department, etc.; as, the prefect of the aqueducts; the prefect of a camp, of a fleet, of the city guard, of provisions; the pretorian prefect, who was commander of the troops guarding the emperor's person.

Of or pertaining to a prefect.

The office or jurisdiction of a prefect.

The office, position, or jurisdiction of a prefect; also, his official residence.

A term collectively applied to the changes or conditions preceding fecundation, especially to the changes which the ovum undergoes before fecundation.

Of or pertaining to prefecundation.

To carry or bring (something) forward, or before one; hence, to bring for consideration, acceptance, judgment, etc.; to offer; to present; to proffer; to address; -- said especially of a request, prayer, petition, claim, charge, etc.

The quality or state of being preferable; preferableness.

Worthy to be preferred or chosen before something else; more desirable; as, a preferable scheme.

The quality or state of being preferable.

In preference; by choice.

The act of Preferring, or the state of being preferred; the setting of one thing before another; precedence; higher estimation; predilection; choice; also, the power or opportunity of choosing; as, to give him his preference.

Giving, indicating, or having a preference or precedence; as, a preferential claim; preferential shares.

The act of choosing, or the state of being chosen; preference.

One who prefers.

The quality or state of being prefident.

Trusting beforehand; hence, overconfident.

To prefigure.

The act of prefiguring, or the state of being prefigured.

Showing by prefiguration.

To show, suggest, or announce, by antecedent types and similitudes; to foreshadow.

The act of prefiguring; prefiguration; also, that which is prefigured.

To limit beforehand.

Prearranged.

Previous limitation.

That which is prefixed; esp., one or more letters or syllables combined or united with the beginning of a word to modify its signification; as, pre- in prefix, con- in conjure.

The act of prefixing.

Aestivation.

Vernation.

To form beforehand, or for special ends.

An old theory of the pre/xistence of germs. Cf. Embo/tement.

A formative letter at the beginning of a word.

Situated in front of the frontal bone, or the frontal region of the skull; ectethmoid, as a certain bone in the nasal capsule of many animals, and certain scales of reptiles and fishes. A prefrontal bone or scale.

Superior brightness or effulgency.

To pre/ngage.

Prior to the glacial or drift period.

Capable of being entered, taken, or captured; expugnable; as, a pregnable fort.

Pregnancy.

The condition of being pregnant; the state of being with young.

Affording entrance; receptive; yielding; willing; open; prompt.

To bear down; to depress.

To descend by gravity; to sink.

Tasting beforehand; having a foretaste.

The act of tasting beforehand; foretaste.

An extra first toe, or rudiment of a toe, on the preaxial side of the hallux.

To lay hold of; to seize.

Capable of being seized.

Adapted to seize or grasp; seizing; grasping; as, the prehensile tail of a monkey.

The act of taking hold, seizing, or grasping, as with the hand or other member.

Adapted to seize or grasp; prehensile.

Of or pertaining to a period before written history begins; as, the prehistoric ages; prehistoric man.

A pale green mineral occurring in crystalline aggregates having a botryoidal or mammillary structure, and rarely in distinct crystals. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime.

Pertaining to, or designating, a tetrabasic acid of benzene obtained as a white crystalline substance; -- probably so called from the resemblance of the wartlike crystals to the mammill/ on the surface of prehnite.

Ignition in an internal-combustion engine while the inlet valve is open or before compression is completed.

Having no sign expressive of quantity; indefinite. See Predesignate.

To render indisposed beforehand.

To instruct previously or beforehand.

Previous intimation; a suggestion beforehand.

To judge before hearing, or before full and sufficient examination; to decide or sentence by anticipation; to condemn beforehand.

The act of prejudging; decision before sufficient examination.

Prejudice; prepossession.

Of or pertaining to the determination of some matter not previously decided; as, a prejudical inquiry or action at law.

Influenced by prejudice; biased.

To prejudge.

With prejudice.

The act of prejudicating, or of judging without due examination of facts and evidence; prejudgment.

Forming a judgment without due examination; prejudging.

To cause to have prejudice; to prepossess with opinions formed without due knowledge or examination; to bias the mind of, by hasty and incorrect notions; to give an unreasonable bent to, as to one side or the other of a cause; as, to prejudice a critic or a juryman.

Prior knowledge.

The office or dignity of a prelate; church government by prelates.

Of or pertaining to printing; typographical.

To act as a prelate.

Prelacy.

The office of a prelate.

A woman who is a prelate; the wife of a prelate.

Prelatical.

Of or pertaining to prelates or prelacy; as, prelatical authority.

In a prelatical manner; with reference to prelates.

The setting of one above another; preference.

Prelacy; episcopacy.

One who supports of advocates prelacy, or the government of the church by prelates; hence, a high-churchman.

To uphold or encourage prelacy; to exercise prelatical functions.

Prelaty; prelacy.

The state or dignity of a prelate; prelacy.

Prelacy.

To discourse publicly; to lecture.

A lecture or discourse read in public or to a select company.

A reader of lectures or discourses; a lecturer.

A tasting beforehand, or by anticipation; a foretaste; as, a prelibation of heavenly bliss.

In a preliminary manner.

That which precedes the main discourse, work, design, or business; something introductory or preparatory; as, the preliminaries to a negotiation or duel; to take one's preliminaries the year before entering college.

To limit previously.

To look forward.

To introduce with a previous performance; to play or perform a prelude to; as, to prelude a concert with a lively air.

One who, or that which, preludes; one who plays a prelude.

Of or pertaining to a prelude; of the nature of a prelude; introductory.

Preludial.

Situated immediately in front of the loins; -- applied to the dorsal part of the abdomen.

Of the nature of a prelude; introductory; indicating that something of a like kind is to follow.

In a prelusory way.