Priority

4 definitions found

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

  Priority \Pri*or"i*ty\, n. [Cf. F. priorit['e]. See {Prior}, a.]
     1. The quality or state of being prior or antecedent in time,
        or of preceding something else; as, priority of
        application.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. Precedence; superior rank. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Priority of debts}, a superior claim to payment, or a claim
        to payment before others.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Antecedence; precedence; pre["e]minence.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  priority
       n 1: status established in order of importance or urgency;
            "...its precedence as the world's leading manufacturer
            of pharmaceuticals"; "national independence takes
            priority over class struggle" [syn: {precedence}, {precedency}]
       2: preceding in time [syn: {antecedence}, {antecedency}, {anteriority},
           {precedence}, {precedency}] [ant: {posteriority}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  125 Moby Thesaurus words for "priority":
     accent, accomplishment, antecedence, antecedency, anteposition,
     anteriority, arrangement, ascendancy, authority, bold front,
     brave face, brave front, concern, concernment, consequence,
     consequentiality, consideration, deanship, display, dominion,
     eminence, emphasis, excellence, facade, face, facet, facia, favor,
     fore, forefront, foregoing, foreground, forehand, foreland,
     forepart, forequarter, foreside, foreword, front, front elevation,
     front man, front matter, front page, front position, front view,
     frontage, frontal, frontier, frontispiece, greatness, head,
     heading, high order, high rank, immediacy, import, importance,
     incomparability, influence, influentialness, inimitability,
     interest, lap, le pas, lead, leading, majority, mark, materiality,
     merit, moment, note, obverse, one-upmanship, order, ordering,
     paramountcy, precedence, precedency, preceding, precession,
     precursor, predominance, predomination, preeminence, preface,
     preference, prefix, prefixation, prelude, preponderance,
     prepotence, prepotency, prerogative, pressure, prestige, primacy,
     privilege, prominence, proscenium, prothesis, rank, right,
     right-of-way, self-importance, seniority, significance, skill,
     stature, stress, success, superiority, supremacy, the lead,
     top priority, transcendence, transcendency, urgency, value, van,
     virtuosity, weight, weightiness, window dressing, worth
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PRIORITY. Going before; opposed to posteriority. (q.v.) 
       2. He who has the precedency in time has the advantage in right, is the 
  maxim of the law; not that time, considered barely in itself, can make any 
  such difference, but because the whole power over a thing being secured to 
  one person, this bars all others from obtaining a title to it afterwards. 1 
  Fonb. Eq. 320. 
       3. In the payment of debts, the United States are entitled to priority 
  when the debtor is insolvent, or dies and leaves an insolvent estate. The 
  priority was declared to extend to cases in which the insolvent debtor had 
  made a voluntary assignment of all his property, or in which his effects had 
  been attached as an absconding or absent debtor, on which an act of legal 
  bankruptcy had been committed. 1 Kent, Com. 243; 1 Law Intell. 219, 251; and 
  the cases there cited. 
       4. Among common creditors, he who has the oldest lien has the 
  preference; it being a maxim both of law and equity, qui prior est tempore, 
  potior est jure. 2 John. Ch. R. 608. Vide Insolvency; and Serg. Const. La*, 
  Index, h.t.