before

• befo, befo' (African-American Vernacular, pronunciation spelling)
• b4, be4 (Internet slang)

Inherited from Middle English before / bifore, from Old English beforan, from be- + foran (“before”), from fore, from Proto-Germanic *furai, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“front”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian befoar (“before”), German Low German bevör (“before”), German bevor (“before”).

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bĭfôʹ, IPA^(key): /bɪˈfɔː/
• (General American) enPR: bəfôrʹ, bēfôrʹ, bĭfôrʹ, IPA^(key): /bəˈfoɹ/, /biˈfoɹ/, /bɪˈfoɹ/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: bĭfōrʹ, IPA^(key): /bɪˈfo(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /bɪˈfoə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧fore
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)

before

1. Earlier than (in time).

   Synonyms: by, no later than, previous to, prior to, (obsolete) ere

   Antonyms: after, later than

   I want this done before Monday.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.

2. In front of in space.

   Synonyms: ahead of, in front of

   Antonym: behind

   He stood before me.

   We sat before the fire to warm ourselves.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.

   • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:

     He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. […] But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again […] she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.

   • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

     The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

3. In the presence of.

   He performed before the troops in North Africa.

   He spoke before a joint session of Congress.

4. Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).

   The case laid before the panel aroused nothing but ridicule.

   • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani:

     If a suit be begun before an archdeacon […]

5. In store for, in the future of (someone).

   Your whole life is before you.

   • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “The Phœnix”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 164:

     The golden age […] is before us.

   • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 76:

     There is an Eternity behind thee as well as one before. Hast thou bewailed the aeons that passed without thee, who art so much afraid of the aeons that shall pass?

6. In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.

   Synonym: ahead of

   Antonym: after

   In alphabetical order, "cat" comes before "dog", "canine" before feline".

7. At a higher or greater position than, in a ranking.

   An entrepreneur puts market share and profit before quality, and amateur intrinsic qualities before economical considerations.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 1:15:

     He that cometh after me is preferred before me.

before (not comparable)

1. At an earlier time.

   Synonym: previously

   Antonym: after

   I've never done this before.

   This achievement far exceeded anything that had come before.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

2. (chiefly literary or poetic) In advance in position or sequence; ahead.

   Synonym: ahead

   We walked behind while they went before.

3. (uncommon) At the front end.

   Synonym: in front

   Antonym: behind

   • 1896, Hilaire Belloc, “The Elephant”, in The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts:

     When people call this beast to mind,
     They marvel more and more
     At such a little tail behind,
     So LARGE a trunk before.

before

1. In advance of the time when.

   Brush your teeth before you go to bed.

   • 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page xiv:

     But before this elaborate treatise can become of universal use and ornament to my native country, two points […] are absolutely necessary.

   • 2011 November 11, Rory Houston, “Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland”, in RTE Sport:

     Stephen Ward then had to time his tackle excellently to deny Tarmo Kink as the Wolves winger slid the ball out of play before the Estonian could attempt to beat Given.

2. (informal) Rather or sooner than.

   Synonym: lest

   I'll die before I'll tell you anything about it.

before (plural befores)

1. Of before-and-after images: the one that shows the difference before a specified treatment.

   Coordinate term: after

   • 1918 April, “Before and After”, in Arthur Deerin Call, editor, Advocate of Peace, volume LXXX, number 4, Washington, D.C.: American Peace Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, “Editorial Notes” section, page 105, column 2:

     On the left of the double column of photographs are the “befores.” Look at them! Fine boys all, yet here is an unformed mouth; there, a fine face just missing strength by a slight over-plumpness of feature; below, a clever face just a shade too “smart”; on the next page, a form too slight and beginning to stoop. On the right are the “afters.”

   • 1973, Mary Lutyens, chapter 8, in Cleo, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN, page 164:

     I told them that I was taking part in a ‘Before and After’ feature for the magazine. The beauty editor had picked a couple of girls in the office to experiment on. ‘I always think that the befores look better than the afters in that kind of experiment,’ Aunt G said.

   • 2017, Meagan Cass, “Calling All Soloflex Men”, in ActivAmerica, Denton, Tex.: University of North Texas Press, →ISBN, page 100:

     Sometimes we’d agree the person looked better in their before. Happier somehow. More themselves before the muscles. […] Other times we’d laugh at the befores. I’d make a crack, something like, “People should need a special government ID to buy spandex like that. It’s a question of public safety.”

2. (uncommon, often poetic) That which occurred or existed previously.
   • 1982, Hugh Seidman, “Hymn”, in Throne/Falcon/Eye: Poems, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN; quoted in Michael Heller, “SEIDMAN, Hugh”, in edited by James Vinson and D[aniel] L[ane] Kirkpatrick, Contemporary Poets (Contemporary Writers of the English Language), 4th edition, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, 1985, →ISBN, pages 763–764:

     As all are commanded to yield like the mummy when the dung beetle rolls the sun / before all the befores of the trillion nights past night and day / though I knew that the broken receding mouth of the Sphinx had nothing to add / of resurrection in the history of its grimace.

   • 1995, Maria Luisa Spaziani, translated by Laura Stortoni, “The Aegean”, in Sentry Towers, Berkeley, Calif.: Hesperia Press, →ISBN, page 41:

     Your music has lasted since the beginning of the world. A stone was born in the waters. […] Voice rising to heaven, pure music, green primal root, mother-sea, before all the befores.

   • 1998, Janice Kulyk Keefer, “Prologue: A Bridge of Words”, in Honey and Ashes: A Story of Family, Toronto, Ont.: HarperPerennialCanada, →ISBN, page 3:

     Yet when I was a child, I stood with my mother on that distant shore, or walked with her up the road, past orchards of plums and pears, past fields narrow as piano keys. To the village where she was born, and her mother before her; all other mothers, all the befores that ever were.

   • 2000, Daniel Villasenor, chapter 6, in The Lake, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 30:

     Because we’re in debt to that before, to all the befores where the life was before the words. Every time we pick up a hammer and a nail there’s a dead man in it who built a lean-to out of the weather in Wyoming in December or a farmer in Latin America someplace on the back of a mule-drawn cart broken down with a town’s vegetables rotting in the sun or a Mennonite right over there in McGaheysville this minute saying no to some nigh useless particle board siding and still fashioning his house with his hand.

   • 2001, Ezra Scott, “Anavak’s Tale”, in Angel Up My Sleeve, Santa Fe, N.M.: Fontanel Books, →ISBN, page 25:

     For high in the brightest tower of Light Castle, one thing shone still brighter—the Princess of Light! She came from before all the befores, from a place that is no place. Not fire. Not water. Not air. Not earth. No place. Neither solid, nor liquid, nor gas. Nothing to speak of.

   • 2003, Cynn Chadwick, chapter 16, in Cat Rising, Binghamton, N.Y.: Alice Street Editions, →ISBN, page 236:

     The packing that took all week to finish had also taken her mind off Mike. Less and less she found herself weeping. Her focus was on the nexts. There was little time now to think about all the befores. Today would put an end to the last leftover one.

   • 2011, Mary E. Pearson, chapter 74, in The Fox Inheritance (Jenna Fox Chronicles; 2), New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, page 285:

     We talk about all the befores. The stupid things we did. The funny things. The times she made us laugh.

3. (rare) A previous form or instance.
   • 1999 March, Julia Vinograd, “The Homeless”, in Street Spirit, volume 5, number 3, San Francisco, Calif.: American Friends Service Committee, →OCLC, page 13:

     A big wind blew all their befores away. Impacted teeth grew over their names. Even the lines in their hands unraveled, these are the lines they stand in to ask for their hands back.

   • 2006, Walee [pseudonym], “I Never Can Say Goodbye”, in What’s on the Menu? All of Me! Literary Entrees Prepared by Walee, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, chapter 3, page 55:

     I guess I should have known from all the befores / that when it’s all said and done / I don’t want to be / I won’t stand to be / I refuse to be / anything but YOURS

   • 2015, Sarah Pinborough, chapter 14, in The Death House, London: Gollancz, →ISBN, page 160:

     They were chatting and laughing and it made my heart hurt. They were getting out. Returning to whatever their befores were. They didn’t even glance back at the house as they climbed into the waiting vehicles.

• “before”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

• borfee