before

[[t]bɪfɔ͟ː(r)[/t]]

♦

(In addition to the uses shown below, before is used in the phrasal verbs `go before' and `lay before'.)

1) PREP If something happens before a particular date, time, or event, it happens earlier than that date, time, or event.

Annie was born a few weeks before Christmas...

Before World War II, women were not recruited as intelligence officers...

My husband rarely comes to bed before 2 or 3am.

Ant:

after

CONJ-SUBORD

Before is also a conjunction.

Stock prices have climbed close to the peak they'd registered before the stock market crashed in 1987.

2) PREP: PREP -ing If you do something before doing something else, you do it earlier than the other thing.

He spent his early life in Sri Lanka before moving to England...

Before leaving, he went into his office to fill in the daily time sheet.

Ant:

after

CONJ-SUBORD

Before is also a conjunction.

He took a cold shower and then towelled off before he put on fresh clothes.

3) ADV: n ADV You use before when you are talking about time. For example, if something happened the day before a particular date or event, it happened during the previous day.

The war had ended only a month or so before.

PREP: n PREP n

Before is also a preposition.

It's interesting that he sent me the book twenty days before the deadline for my book.

CONJ-SUBORD

Before is also a conjunction.

Kelman had a book published in the US more than a decade before a British publisher would touch him.

4) CONJ-SUBORD If you do something before someone else can do something, you do it when they have not yet done it.

Before Gallacher could catch up with the ball, Nadlovu had beaten him to it.

5) ADV: ADV after v If someone has done something before, they have done it on a previous occasion. If someone has not done something before, they have never done it.

I've been here before...

I had met Professor Lown before...

She had never been to Italy before.

6) CONJ-SUBORD If there is a period of time or if several things are done before something happens, it takes that amount of time or effort for this thing to happen.

It was some time before the door opened in response to his ring.

Syn:

until

7) CONJ-SUBORD If a particular situation has to happen before something else happens, this situation must happen or exist in order for the other thing to happen.

There was additional work to be done before all the troops would be ready.

8) PREP If someone is before something, they are in front of it. [FORMAL]

They drove through a tall iron gate and stopped before a large white villa.

Syn:

in front of

9) PREP If you tell someone that one place is a certain distance before another, you mean that they will come to the first place first.

The turn is about two kilometres before the roundabout.

10) PREP If you appear or come before an official person or group, you go there and answer questions.

The Governor will appear before the committee next Tuesday.

Syn:

in front of

11) PREP If something happens before a particular person or group, it is seen by or happens while this person or this group is present.

The game followed a colourful opening ceremony before a crowd of seventy-four thousand.

Syn:

in front of

12) PREP: PREP pron If you have something such as a journey, a task, or a stage of your life before you, you must do it or live through it in the future.

Everyone in the room knew it was the single hardest task before them...

I saw before me an idyllic life.

Syn:

ahead of

13) PREP: v PREP n When you want to say that one person or thing is more important than another, you can say that they come before the other person or thing.

Her husband, her children, and the Church came before her needs.

14) before long → see long