theretofore, adv. Now formal.
(ˌðɛətʊˈfɔə(r))
[ME. þer tofore: see there 17 and tofore adv.]
Before that time; previously to that.
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 2611 Þei..wist þat þai in wast wrouȝt þer to-fore. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas viii. i. (MS. Bodl. 263) 368/2 Emperors reknid for ther toforn was non. 1791 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 205 The By-laws theretofore made. 1851 Gladstone Glean. (1879) VI. 4 A judgment that alienated dissenting endowments from purposes to which they had theretofore been applied. 1894 State Trials (N.S.) VI. 410 According to the canonical practice theretofore observed in England. |