"pre" definition, meaning, and origin

Noun

Clipping of predrinks.
- This one's for a short and sweet pres before heading to the club. If you're aiming to get absolutely SMASHED in a short amount of time, this is the game for you! - 2022 February 28, Malou Baumann, “A round-up of all the...
Clipping of precum.
Clipping of preparty.
- The formal is about 95 per cent hype and hysteria, and about 5 per cent actual formal, and the pre-formal gathering of parents and kids is about as hypey and hysterical as it gets... After the pres, the night mirrors...
Clipping of prefect.
- “If a pre looked in now —” “Or Quelch—!” grinned the Bounder. “They'd have him!” said Bob Cherry. “Better wake him up.” - 1950, Charles Hamilton, Billy Bunter's Postal Order:

Clippings.

Before (something significant).
- In the posting, Matthews said he wished that, “more blacks [sic] people would look into ancient beliefs of pre Christian Africa.” - 2019 April 12, Paul P. Murphy and Samira Said, “Louisiana arson suspect expressed...

From Latin prae (“in front of”); see pre-.

Clipping of pre-drink.
- This view alone is reason enough to book up this place for a girl's weekend. Imagine preing outside the city lights, playing the Lemonade visual album full blast on Apple TV. - 2017 May 26, Paige McPhee, “13 Toronto...
- It's your average Saturday night and you're preing with your mates so you won't have to waste tonnes of money in some average bar. No one can come up with a good drinking game, so you just resort to the classics: Beer...
- Fight Night, one of the most notorious student nights of the year, returns this month. Getting dressed up with your friends, preing way too hard, and finally Ubering to the AO Arena where the hip flask you smuggled in...
Clipping of precum.