Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Precedent

Pre·ced′ent (·ent), a. [L. praecedens, -entis, p. pr. of praecedere: cf. F. précédent. See Precede.] Going before; anterior; preceding; antecedent; as, precedent services. Shak. "A precedent injury." Bacon.

Condition precedent (Law), a condition which precede the vesting of an estate, or the accruing of a right.

Prec′e·dent (prĕs′ē·dent), n. 1. Something done or said that may serve as an example to authorize a subsequent act of the same kind; an authoritative example.

Examples for cases can but direct as precedents only. Hooker.

2. A preceding circumstance or condition; an antecedent; hence, a prognostic; a token; a sign. [Obs.]

3. A rough draught of a writing which precedes a finished copy. [Obs.] Shak.

4. (Law) A judicial decision which serves as a rule for future determinations in similar or analogous cases; an authority to be followed in courts of justice; forms of proceeding to be followed in similar cases. Wharton.

Syn. — Example; antecedent. — Precedent, Example. An example in a similar case which may serve as a rule or guide, but has no authority out of itself. A precedent is something which comes down to us from the past with the sanction of usage and of common consent. We quote examples in literature, and precedents in law.

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 “?”.