preliminaries
Britishplural noun
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.
Earlier, during the preliminaries, someone had led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance—first to the American flag, then to the state of Texas.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
It was so hot on Saturday that a more than three-hour heat delay was imposed in the middle of the Southern Section Division 3 track and field preliminaries at Yorba Linda.
From Los Angeles Times • May 10, 2025
Aside from the bartender, there was only one person actually braving the record-breaking 110-degree heat on the roof and watching UFC preliminaries on the wall-mounted TV: a gregarious, stocky, bespectacled older man named Mike.
From Slate • Oct. 31, 2024
After a successful debut at Tokyo 2020, the skateboarding got under way in Paris with Britons Sky Brown and Lola Tambling competing in the women's park preliminaries.
From BBC • Aug. 6, 2024
By August 12, the day of the eight-oar preliminaries, Don Hume had lost a worrisome 14 pounds from his normal weight, the 172 pounds he had carried in Poughkeepsie.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.