before

In advance of the time when.

Adverb

  1. At an earlier time.
    • I've never done this before.
    • This achievement far exceeded anything that had come before.
    • 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...

    Synonyms: previously

    Antonyms: after

  2. In advance in position or sequence; ahead.
    • We walked behind while they went before.

    Synonyms: ahead

  3. At the front end.
    • When people call this beast to mind, They marvel more and more At such a little tail behind, So LARGE a trunk before. - 1896, Hilaire Belloc, “The Elephant”, in The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts:

    Synonyms: in front

    Antonyms: behind

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Old English be- Old English foran Old English beforan Middle English bifore English before Inherited from Middle English before /bifore, from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).

Forms

befo befo' b4 be4

Conjunction

  1. In advance of the time when.
    • Near-synonym: no later than
    • Brush your teeth before you go to bed.
    • But before this elaborate treatise can become of universal use and ornament to my native country, two points[…] are absolutely necessary. - 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An...

    Synonyms: no later than

    Antonyms: after

  2. Rather or sooner than.
    • I'll die before I('ll) tell you anything about it.

    Synonyms: as soon as

    Coordinate Terms: no sooner than lest

Forms

befo befo' b4 be4

Noun

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

    Coordinate Terms: after

  2. That which occurred or existed previously.
    • 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...
    • 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. - 1995, Maria Luisa Spaziani,...
    • 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...
  3. A previous form or instance.
    • 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. - 1999 March, Julia Vinograd, “The...
    • 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 - 2006, Walee [pseudonym], “I Never Can Say Goodbye”,...
    • 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. - 2015,...

Forms

befores befo befo' b4 be4

Derived

accessary before the fact accessory before the fact age before beauty a lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on before-and-after before and after beforecited before dark before GTA 6 beforehand before image journal before it was cool before long beforely beforemath beforementioned before-mentioned beforenamed beforeness beforenoon before one can blink before one knows it before one knows where one is before one's eyes

Preposition

  1. Earlier than (in time).
    • 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. - 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New...

    Synonyms: by no later than previous to prior to ere

    Antonyms: after later than

  2. In front of in space.
    • He stood before me.
    • We sat before the fire to warm ourselves.
    • His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire. - 1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter...

    Synonyms: ahead of in front of

    Antonyms: behind

  3. In the presence of.
    • He performed before the troops in North Africa.
    • He spoke before a joint session of Congress.
  4. Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
    • The case laid before the panel aroused nothing but ridicule.
    • If a suit be begun before an archdeacon[…] - 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani:
  5. In store for, in the future of (someone).
    • Your whole life is before you.
    • The golden age[…]is before us. - 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “The Phœnix”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 164:
    • 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? - 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron...
  6. In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.
    • In alphabetical order, "cat" comes before "dog", "canine" before feline".

    Synonyms: ahead of

    Antonyms: after

  7. At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.
    • 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. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 1:15:

Forms

befo befo' b4 be4