preceding, ppl. a.
(prɪˈsiːdɪŋ)
[f. precede + -ing2.]
That precedes. a. in order or arrangement: Coming or placed before something else; esp. coming immediately before; given, stated, or mentioned just before; foregoing.
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. v. cxix. 95 As before is touchyd in the presedyng chapitre. 1702–3 Gale in Pepy's Diary, etc. (1879) VI. 258 Dr. S. gave me the preceding account. 1772 Junius Lett. lxviii. (1797) II. 267, I have great faith in the preceding argument. 1823 H. J. Brooke Introd. Crystallogr. 127 The secondary forms belonging to the four preceding classes of primary forms, are nearly similar to each other. |
b. in time: Existing, occurring, or going on before something else; previous, prior, past, anterior, former, antecedent; esp. occurring just before, immediately anterior, ‘last’.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well v. iii. 196 Of sixe preceding Ancestors,..Hath it beene owed and worne. 1654 Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Warrs Flanders 237 They..sent them..about the end of the preceding May last [antecedente Maggio passato]. a 1720 Sewel Hist. Quakers (1795) I. Pref. 16 The great difference between this last, and all the..preceding persecutions. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 48 Each generation improves upon the preceding. |
c. in movement: spec. in Astr. said of a heavenly body, etc. situated to the west of another, and therefore moving in front of it in the apparent diurnal rotation of the heavens.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Orion, Bright [star] in preced[ing] foot called regel... Preced[ing] in the girdle... Middle of three in the girdle... Third and last in the girdle. 1784 Herschel in Phil. Trans. LXXIV. 265 The preceding side of Mars shews the flattening of the poles, while the following is terminated by an elliptical arch. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v. Quadrant, In speaking of double stars, or of two objects near each other, the position of one component in reference to the other is indicated by the terms, north following, north preceding, south following, or south preceding, the word quadrant being understood. |