PRECEDENT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Precedent

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/prˈɛsɪdənt/ Listen

noun

Precedent n.

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."

A preceding circumstance or condition; an antecedent; hence, a prognostic; a token; a sign. (Obs.)

A rough draught of a writing which precedes a finished copy. (Obs.)

(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.

Synonyms: 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.

adjective

Precedent adj. Going before; anterior; preceding; antecedent; as, precedent services. "A precedent injury."

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

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Etymology of 'Precedent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Precedent" Quotes from Famous Books

... assurance for those in whose favour they were conceived; and indeed the murder of the Duke's grandfather at the Bridge of Montereau, in presence of the father of Louis, and at an interview solemnly agreed upon for the establishment of peace and amnesty, was a horrible precedent, should the Duke be ...

— Quentin Durward • Sir Walter Scott

... charge me that I advance a new policy, with that precedent before your eyes? Would you be willing to resign, now that you are powerful, in respect to other parts of the laws of nations, that which you have boldly taken in respect to one part of them, when you were yet comparatively weak? Or would ...

— Select Speeches of Kossuth • Kossuth

... the rules of Plato, Aristotle, Phalereus, Cicero, Hermogenes, Longinus. To which poetry would be made subsequent, or, indeed, rather precedent, as being less subtile and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate. I mean not here the prosody of a verse, which they could not but have hit on before among the rudiments of grammar; but that sublime art which ...

— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... 'Only a precedent,' said Blanche, blushing a little, but still grave. 'We have had some experience, you know. Our corps was one of the earliest enrolled, and Hector managed it almost entirely. It was the reason we have not been able to come here ...

— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge

... at Lutai, a few miles to the north of Tientsin, and told never to do such rash and indiscreet things again. That means the end of any attempts to control. For the Boxer partisans in Peking allege that the soldiers actually hit and killed a good many men, which is quite without precedent, and is upsetting all plans. On such occasions it is always understood that you fire a little in the air, warwhoop a good deal, and then come back quietly to camp with captured flags and banners as undeniable evidences of your victory. This has been the old method ...

— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale

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