PRE

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pre- \Pre-\ [L. prae, adv. & prep., before, akin to pro, and to
     E. for, prep.: cf. F. pr['e]-. See {Pro-}, and cf. {Prior}.]
     A prefix denoting priority (of time, place, or rank); as,
     precede, to go before; precursor, a forerunner; prefix, to
     fix or place before; pre["e]minent eminent before or above
     others. Pre- is sometimes used intensively, as in prepotent,


     very potent. [Written also {pr[ae]-}.]
     [1913 Webster]

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  PRE-:ADAMITE:, n.  One of an experimental and apparently unsatisfactory
  race of antedated Creation and lived under conditions not easily
  conceived.  Melsius believed them to have inhabited "the Void" and to
  have been something intermediate between fishes and birds.  Little its
  known of them beyond the fact that they supplied Cain with a wife and
  theologians with a controversy.
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  PRE-:EXISTENCE:, n.  An unnoted factor in creation.