2 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Early \Ear"ly\, a. [Compar. {Earlier} ([~e]r"l[i^]*[~e]r);
superl. {Earliest}.] [OE. earlich [root]204. See {Early},
adv.]
1. 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.
Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
--Burke.
The doorsteps and threshold with the early grass
springing up about them --Hawthorne.
2. Coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the
first of successive acts events, etc
Seen in life's early morning sky. --Keble.
The forms of its earlier manhood. --Longfellow.
The earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth
summer. --J. C.
Shairp
{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.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
earliest
adj : (comparative and superlative of `early') more early than
most early; "a fashion popular in earlier times"; "his
earlier work reflects the influence of his teacher";
"Verdi's earliest and most raucous opera" [syn: {earlier}]
adv : with the least delay; "the soonest I can arrive is 3 P.M."
[syn: {soonest}]
more about earliest
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