aforetime
aforetime adverb: in time past; in a former time; formerly.
Adverb
aforetime (not comparable)
- In time past; in a former time; formerly.
- Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great river of sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I called to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to myself, "Needs must I make another; haply I may free me from this strait.[…]"1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 564
- She and the Tertium Quid enjoyed each other's society among the graves of men and women whom they had known and danced with aforetime.1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 52
- Synonyms:
- aforetimes
Adjective
aforetime (not comparable)
- Former.
- To him, despite the housekeeper, there was an impropriety in Ursula, the elderly ex-parson, and Andrew living under the one roof - a matter that, for all his aforetime vigilance, had escaped Mr. Civil.1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 212
Noun
aforetime (plural aforetimes)
- A former time.
- In the modern kitchen waste is guarded against as strenuously as ever in the aforetimes; but the remnants are used with knowledge—with a scientific attention to flavor and to the nature of the ingredients.1902 February, Pascal Grand, “A Chef and His Development”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume XXVI, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Frank A[ndrew] Munsey, section “The Choice of Utensils”, page 635, column 1
- The aforetime of stereotyping residence styles, so to speak, has been abandoned altogether, and, inside of uniformity, variety is sought to be developed by the architects.1909 November 14, “Oakland Is on the Eve of Great Developments; Realty Men Looking South; Western Pacific Improvements Creating New Prospects and Waterfront Improvement Opening New Vistas of Realty...
aforetime meaning in Tamil
aforetime in Tamil
- முன் நாளைய, பண்டு, முன்னாட்களில்
Synonyms of aforetime
Forms of aforetime
| plural | aforetimes |
|---|
Origin of aforetime
From Middle English a fore tyme, afore tyme, aforetyme, afortym, a-for-tyme, afortymez; equivalent to afore- + time.
Questions about aforetime
- What does aforetime mean?
- Aforetime means in time past; in a former time; formerly.
- What is aforetime in Tamil?
- Aforetime in Tamil is முன் நாளைய, பண்டு, முன்னாட்களில். See Aforetime meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is aforetime?
- Aforetime can be an adverb, an adjective or a noun.
Words near aforetime in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: aforetime (page history and authors); aforetime (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-aforetime.wav.
Cite this entry: “aforetime.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aforetime. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.