Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Former

Form′er (fôrm′ẽr), n. 1. One who forms; a maker; a creator.

2. (Mech.) (a) A shape around which an article is to be shaped, molded, woven wrapped, pasted, or otherwise constructed. (b) A templet, pattern, or gauge by which an article is shaped. (c) A cutting die.

For′mer, a. [A compar. due to OE. formest. See Foremost.] 1. Preceding in order of time; antecedent; previous; prior; earlier; hence, ancient; long past.

For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age. Job. viii. 8.

The latter and former rain. Hosea vi. 3.

3. Near the beginning; preceeding; as, the former part of a discourse or argument.

3. Earlier, as between two things mentioned together; first mentioned.

A bad author deserves better usage than a bad critic; a man may be the former merely through the misfortune of an ill judgment; but he can not be latter without both that and an ill temper. Pope.

Syn. — Prior; previous; anterior; antecedent; preceding; foregoing.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.