GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 2 definitions

1.       
   Early , adv. [OE. erli, erliche, AS. ǣrlīce; ǣr sooner + līc like. See Ere, and Like.] Soon; in good season; seasonably; betimes; as, come early.
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   Those that me early shall find me.
   Prov. viii. 17.
   
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   You must wake and call me early.
   Tennyson.
   
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2.       
   Early, a. [Compar. Earlier ; superl. Earliest.] [OE. earlich. √204. See Early, adv.]
   In advance of the usual or appointed time; in good season; prior in time; among or near the first; -- opposed to late; as, the early bird; an early spring; early fruit.
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   Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
   Burke.
   
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   The doorsteps and threshold with the early grass springing up about them.
   Hawthorne.
   
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   Coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the first of successive acts, events, etc.
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   Seen in life's early morning sky.
   Keble.
   
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   The forms of its earlier manhood.
   Longfellow.
   
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   The earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth summer.
   J. C. Shairp.
   
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   Early English (Philol.) See the Note under English. -- Early English architecture, the first of the pointed or Gothic styles used in England, succeeding the Norman style in the 12th and 13th centuries.
   Syn. -- Forward; timely; not late; seasonable.
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