The Collaborative International Dictionary
Previous \Pre"vi*ous\, a. [L. praevius going before, leading the way; prae before + via the way. See Voyage.] Going before in time; being or happening before something else; antecedent; prior; as, previous arrangements; a previous illness.
The dull sound . . . previous to the storm,
Rolls o'er the muttering earth.
--Thomson.
Previous question. (Parliamentary Practice) See under Question, and compare Closure.
Previous to, before; -- often used adverbially for
previously. ``Previous to publication.''
--M. Arnold. ``A
policy . . . his friends had advised previous to 1710.''
--J. H. Newman.
Syn: Antecedent; preceding; anterior; prior; foregoing; former.
Usage examples of "previous to".
Unheard of for Valerie, who previous to her divorce had been the perfect daughter, resembling the serene and slim Virgin Mary in every way, with the possible exception of virginity and hair style.
And considering what I had experienced previous to that point, that is saying some.
Where it came from and where it has gone to are both mysteries lost in the history of strife-torn Tethyr, which only recently has come out from under its long civil war, but at some time previous to the struggles, the Sword of Doom vanished from the bedchamber.
One of them, a very respectable chieftain, who told me a story of second sight, which I have not mentioned, but which I too implicitly believed, had in this case, previous to this publick examination, not only said, but attested under his hand, that he had seen the ship-master in the year subsequent to that in which the court was finally satisfied he was drowned.
He was the man Stumpy had written to just previous to the robbery, and he was perhaps one of the persons concerned in my father's downfall.