early
Part of speech: adj
noun
adv
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
Etymology: From Middle English erly, erlich, earlich, from Old English ǣrlīċ (“early”, adjective), equivalent to ere + -ly.
Base: ere
Affixes: -ly
Inflected forms:
form: earlier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: earliest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: earlies
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: earlier
pos: adv
tags: comparative
form: earliest
pos: adv
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.
pos: adj
examples: at eleven, we went for an early lunch; she began reading at an early age; his mother suffered an early death
Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
gloss: Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.
pos: adj
examples: You're early today! I don't usually see you before nine o'clock.
The early guests sipped their punch and avoided each other's eyes.
gloss: After but close to the start of a period of time.
pos: adj
examples: The play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is one of Shakespeare's early works.
Early results showed their winning 245 out of 300 seats in parliament. The main opponent locked up only 31 seats.
'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.
Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.
It’s one of the earliest pieces in the comprehensive collection of metronomes by the British instrument dealer Tony Bingham, which forms the bulk of the Basel exhibition.
gloss: In the starting hours of the day.
pos: adj
examples: It's too early for this sort of thing. I'm not awake yet.
gloss: Having begun to occur; in its early stages.
pos: adj
examples: early cancer
harvesting early peaches
gloss: Of a star or class of stars, hotter than the sun.
pos: adj
gloss: A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day.
pos: noun
tags: informal
examples: On my first day on the watch after leaving the shoplifting squad I paraded on earlies but had completely forgotten to take my ear ring off.
gloss: At a time before expected; sooner than usual.
pos: adv
examples: We finished the project an hour sooner than scheduled, so we left early.
I had children too early (in life), so my first baby arrived early.
No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.
While warmer springs cause the early spider orchid to flower earlier in May, climate warming is also causing female bees to emerge from hibernation even earlier – confounding the orchid’s attempts to dupe the male bees.
gloss: Soon; in good time; seasonably.
pos: adv
examples: [T]thoſe that ſeeke me early, ſhall find me.
You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; / Tomorrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the blythe Newyear; […]
Synonyms: early
early doors
prematurely
Antonyms: late
terminal
mid
middle
tardily
Related words: premature
Derived words: be a hundred years too early
call it an early night
earliness
early adopter
early and late
Early Assamese
early bath
early bells
early binding
early bird
early bird special
early blight
early bloomer
early-bound
early bright
early childhood
early childhood education
early closing
earlycomer
early crow
early day motion
early-day motion
early days
early door
early doors
early fetal demise
early grave
early Helladic
early infantile autism
early innings
earlyish
Early Latin
early life check
early lifer
early mark
early modern
Early Modern Czech
early music
early night
early on
early position
Early Proto-Indo-European
early-purple orchid
early purple orchid
early queening
early reader
early retiree
early retirement
early retirement pensioner
early return
early riser
early saxifrage
early Shōwa
early Showa
early shower
early spider orchid
early spring orchis
early syphilis
early time
early-to-bedder
early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise
early-to-mid
Early Tripuri
early-type star
early vote
early voter
early voting
early-warning
early warning radar
early warning system
early winter cress
early withdrawal
earlywood
European early modern human
an early age
get up early
it's early days
like turkeys voting for an early Christmas
nice and early
nonearly
pseudoearly
small and early
the early bird catches the worm
the early bird gets the worm
twirly
ultraearly
bright and early
Christmas come early
Translations: