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aforetime

American  
[uh-fawr-tahym, uh-fohr-] / əˈfɔrˌtaɪm, əˈfoʊr- /

adverb

  1. in time past; in a former time; previously.

adjective

  1. former; previous.

aforetime British  
/ əˈfɔːˌtaɪm /

adverb

  1. archaic formerly

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of aforetime

First recorded in 1525–35; afore + time

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Morgenthau's business experience aforetime was running a farm paper which few farmers saw, and advising the Governor of New York on agriculture.

From Time Magazine Archive

Considering the punch which Aristide Briand has placed aforetime into French denials of German requests for evacuation this was conciliation indeed.

From Time Magazine Archive

Attorney General Albert Ottinger was asked to write opinions on points of law that would aforetime have been left to the bartender.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Well, I might be able to imagine it, but I'd sooner not. Bad enough to know you're going to come to some awful end without thinking about it aforetime."

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

Yet I do not believe that the world about us will ever again be as it was of old, or the light of the Sun as it was aforetime.

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.