adv. Obs. Forms: see THERE and BEFORE. [Late OE.; two words.]
1. Before that in position or order; in front.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxi. 9. Ðæt folc þæt þar beforan [c. 1160 Hatton Gosp., þær be-fore] ferde.
2. Before that (time); formerly, previously.
c. 1200. [see THEREAFTER 3].
c. 1275. Passion our Lord, 218, in O. E. Misc., 43. As vre louerd þer by-vore heom iseyd hedde.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of Law’s T., 99. In sterres many a wynter ther biforn Was writen the deeth of Ector Achilles.
c. 1430. Freemasonry, 302. Ȝef he nulle okepye hem no more, As he hath y-done ther by-fore.
1592. in J. Morris, Troub. Cath. Forefathers (1877), 34. And the priest there before dead.
