▪ I. premature, a. (adv., n.)
(ˌpriːməˈtjʊə(r); ˈpriː-, ˈprɛmətjʊə(r), in predicative use prɛməˈtjʊə(r))
Also 6 pri-, 7 præ-.
[ad. L. præmātūr-us very early, too early, premature, f. præ, pre- A. + mātūrus mature a. The last pronunciation is now common in Great Britain, esp. in connexions in which there is no mental association with mature; the first is favoured by American dicts.]
A. adj.
† 1. Ripe before the proper season. Obs. rare.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Premature, ripe before other, or ripe before due time and season. 1658 in Phillips. |
2. a. Occurring, existing, or done before the usual, proper, or appointed time; arriving or adopted too soon; too early; over-hasty.
| c 1529 in Fiddes Wolsey ii. (1726) 171 His so primature deathe was imputed only to nimio coitu. 1654 Hammond Fundamentals xiii, 'Tis hard to imagine what..should be able to perswade him to repent, til he hath deposited that premature perswasion of his being in Christ. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 7 ¶15 The account of the engagement..was premature. 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 219 Too rapid growth and premature decay seem invariably connected. 1829 Lytton Devereux i. v, The constant company..made us premature adepts in the manners of the world. 1838 Thirlwall Greece II. xiv. 228 His birth was premature. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §7. 426 Indications that he already felt the advance of premature age. |
b. Obstetrics. Born or occurring before full term (but usu. after the stage when the fœtus normally becomes viable).
| 1754 W. Smellie Coll. Cases & Observations in Midwifery II. xiii. 213 (heading) On the situation of the child during pregnancy, the signs of conception and premature labour. 1775 A. Hamilton Elem. Pract. Midwifery 122 When a woman miscarries in early Gestation, this they consider as an Abortion; but, if in the later Months, that they term a Premature Birth. 1800 Med. Facts & Observations VIII. 190 She has since borne six children by premature labour. 1840 [see induction 9]. 1878 Obstetr. Jrnl. VI. 163 (heading) Case illustrating the viability of extremely small premature children. 1923 J. H. Hess Premature & Congenitally Diseased Infants iii. 40 Heat regulation is one of the least developed functions of the premature infants. 1924 C. Mackenzie Heavenly Ladder xviii. 244 The shock brought on a premature travail, and she was delivered of a boy in the Vicarage. 1969 D. Baird Combined Textbk. Obstetr. & Gynæcol. (ed. 8) xxxiii. 544 By international agreement a ‘premature’ infant has been defined as one weighing 2,500 g. (5½ lb.) or less at birth. 1973 Sci. Amer. May 27/2 Most of the mothers in the experimental group had had a premature baby (gestation period less than 38 weeks). |
c. premature ejaculation (see quot. 1974); = ejaculatio præcox.
| 1910 A. Abrams Diagnostic Therapeutics iii. 230 Occasionally onanism is followed by various grades of impotency (usually psychic) and premature ejaculation. 1925, 1928 [see ejaculatio præcox]. 1942 T. P. Wolfe tr. Reich's Function of Orgasm v. 138 Hysterical men suffer either from erective impotence or premature ejaculation. 1968 T. Wiseman Quick & Dead 140, I with my quick grin and premature ejaculations. 1974 Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. xxxv. 34/1 Partial impotence is common and may take the form of a failure to ejaculate or ejaculation before entry into the vagina or before orgasm is reached, i.e. premature ejaculation. |
B. as adv. = prematurely. (Only poet.)
| 1791 Cowper Iliad. i. 4 Achilles..who..sent many a soul Illustrious into Ades premature. |
C. as n. Obstetrics. A child born before full term.
| 1900 in Dorland Med. Dict. 1923 J. H. Hess Premature & Congenitally Diseased Infants xiv. 313 In the premature especially the skin is delicate, lacking the horny layer. 1960 A. K. Geddes Premature Babies iii. 18 An irregular respiratory rhythm is normal for prematures. |
▪ II. premature, v. Mil.
(ˈprɛmətjʊə(r))
[f. premature a.]
intr. Of a shell or other projectile: to explode prematurely. Of a gun: to fire a shell that explodes prematurely. Hence ˈprematuring ppl. a.
| 1916 ‘Boyd Cable’ Doing their Bit v. 83 A shrapnel prematuring at the muzzle, and the bullets that should have gone lifting high and clear inside the case smashing, perhaps, into the open rear of a gun-emplacement or a battery a few hundred yards in front of the prematuring gun. 1918 G. Frankau Judgement of Valhalla 49 Behind, a cratered slope, with batteries Crashing and flashing, violet in the dusk, And prematuring every now and then. |