beforetime
Americanadverb
adverb
Etymology
Origin of beforetime
First recorded in 1250–1300, beforetime is from Middle English bifor time. See before, time
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Is this the beforetime for Johns, a memory of a time before he decided to be an artist, before he turned inward and began to live almost entirely in his head?
From Washington Post ● Sep. 29, 2021
The flood-gates of his affections may have been opened, and he may have become receptive to influences which had upon him beforetime little or no effect.
From How to be Happy Though Married Being a Handbook to Marriage by Edward John Hardy
An iron lamp hung from the ceiling in what seemed to have been one of the cellars of the old house, though she was unaware beforetime of such a dangerous proximity.
From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 by John Roby
She strayed out, as beforetime, into the woods; but their gloom was more intense, and the very birds seemed to grow sad with her melancholy musings.
From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 by John Roby
Persecution had beforetime visited Patara, in common with other parts of the Roman Empire; and there were ominous signs, like the first mutterings of an earthquake, that a similar calamity might come again.
From The Mother of St. Nicholas A Story of Duty and Peril by Grant Balfour
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
