1
[ adjective ] existing or coming before

Used in print

(S. Idell Pyle, et al., Onsets, Completions, and...)

With due consideration for the limits of precision in assessing , expected rate of change in ossification of girls age 2 years , and the known variations in rate of ossification of these children as described in our preceding paper in the Supplement , each arrow with a `` shaft length '' of four months or less was selected as indicating `` same schedule '' at Onset and Completion , for this particular epiphysis .

(Frieda Arkin, "The Light of the Sea," in The...)

The boyhood summers preceding their uncle 's funeral might never have been .

(S. J. Perelman, The Rising Gorge. New York:...)

Now , you no_doubt regard the preceding as pap ; you 're tooling_around full of gage in your hot_rods , gorging yourselves on pizza and playing pinball in the taverns and generally behaving like Ubermenschen .

2
[ adjective ] preceding in time or order

Synonyms

antecedent

Used in print

(Marvin Schiller, "The Sheep's in the Meadow,"...)

Nothing in_all the preceding years had had the power to bring me closer to a knowledge of profound sorrow than the breakup of camp , the packing away of my camp uniforms , the severing of ties with the six or ten people I had grown most to love in the world .

3
[ adjective ] of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office

Synonyms

past retiring

Examples

"a retiring member of the board"

Related terms

outgoing

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