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
You have cleverly fooled me beforetime, With a dainty scorn, and then an imploring forgiveness!
From Poems by Howells, William Dean
Thus "the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime".
From Myths of Babylonia and Assyria by Mackenzie, Donald Alexander
"I tell you that the king straitly commandeth you to buy their cloths as beforetime you have been accustomed to do, upon pain of his high displeasure."
From The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) by Froude, James Anthony
The other, the most general, is scarcely less so, except that from the construction of West Indian society, there was beforetime felt no immediate outlay for the service required.
From A General Plan for a Mail Communication by Steam, Between Great Britain and the Eastern and Western Parts of the World by MacQueen, James
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.
