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.

Unresistingly; openly; hence, clearly; evidently.

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.

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.

Introductory; prelusive.

Mature or ripe before the proper time; as, the premature fruits of a hotbed.

The quality or state of being premature; early, or untimely, ripeness; as, the prematurity of genius.

A bone on either side of the middle line between the nose and mouth, forming the anterior part of each half of the upper jawbone; the intermaxilla. In man the premaxill/ become united and form the incisor part of the maxillary bone.

Situated in front of the maxillary bones; pertaining to the premaxill/; intermaxillary. A premaxilla.

To advocate.

Premeditated; deliberate.

With premeditation.

The act of meditating or contriving beforehand; previous deliberation; forethought.

To merit or deserve beforehand.

Serving to reward; rewarding.

First fruits.

The first minister of state; the prime minister.

First; chief; as, a premi/re danseuse. The leading woman of a group, esp. in a theatrical cast. A first performance, as of a play; a first night.

to perform (a play, ballet, or composition) for the first time.

The office of the premier.

Previous to the millennium.

Rich in gifts.

To make a premise; to set forth something as a premise.

Premise.

To premise.

A reward or recompense; a prize to be won by being before another, or others, in a competition; reward or prize to be adjudged; a bounty; as, a premium for good behavior or scholarship, for discoveries, etc.

Situated in front of the molar teeth. An anterior molar tooth which has replaced a deciduous molar. See Tooth.

To forewarn; to admonish beforehand.

Previous warning or admonition; forewarning.

Previous warning, notice, or information; forewarning; as, a premonition of danger.

One who, or that which, gives premonition.