former
Someone who forms something; a maker; a creator or founder.
Adjective
- Previous.
- A former president
- the former East Germany
- At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.[…]In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle,...
Synonyms: erstwhile sometime whilom wont-to-be
Antonyms: next following after later subsequent posterior succeeding successor ulterior
- First of aforementioned two items. Used with the, often without a noun.
- The former is a good idea but the latter is not.
- We have two cars, a red one and a blue one. We won the former on a game show.
- Bananas are tastier than parsnips, but the latter’s nutritional value is higher than the former’s.
Antonyms: latter
Origin
Inherited from Middle English former, comparative of forme (“first”), from Old English forma (“first”), descended from Proto-Germanic *frumô. Parallel to prior (via Latin), as comparative form from same Proto-Indo-European root. Related to first and fore (thence before), from Proto-Germanic.
Forms
Synonyms
antecedent anterior earlier erstwhile ex foregone former hitherto old olden past preceding precedent previous prior quondam sometime used-to-be whilom
Antonyms
Hyponyms
Related
Derived
formerly formerness former Soviet Union former times former USSR former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia shadow of one's former self
Noun
- Someone who forms something; a maker; a creator or founder.
- Dave was the former of the company.
- An object used to form something, such as a template, gauge, or cutting die.
- The brick arch was built using a wooden former.
- Someone in, or of, a certain form (class).
- Fifth-former.
- Sixth-former.
Origin
Inherited from Middle English formere. By surface analysis, form + -er.
Forms
Derived
beamformer glassformer metalformer opinion former pan former sixth-former sporeformer T-former t-former