Ear"ly , a.
[Compar. Earlier (&etilde;r"l&ibreve;*&etilde;r);
superl. Earliest.]
[OE. earlich.
√204. See Early,
adv.] 1. In advance of the usual or
appointed time; in good season; prior in time; among or near the first; -- opposed to late; as, the early bird; an early spring; early fruit.
Early and
provident fear is the mother
of safety.
Burke. The
doorsteps and threshold with the early grass springing up about them.
Hawthorne. 2. Coming in the
first part of a period of time, or among the first of successive acts, events, etc.
Seen in life's early morning sky.
Keble. The forms of its
earlier manhood.
Longfellow. The
earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth summer.
J. C. Shairp. Early English (Philol.) See the Note
under English.
-- Early English architecture, the
first of the pointed or Gothic styles used in England, succeeding the Norman style in the
12th and 13th centuries.
Syn. -- Forward; timely; not late; seasonable.
Ear"ly (&etilde;r"l&ybreve;), adv. [OE. erli,
erliche, AS. &aemacr;rlīce;
&aemacr;r sooner + līc like. See Ere, and Like.]
Soon; in good season; seasonably; betimes; as,
come early.
Those that me early shall find me.
Prov. viii. 17.
You must wake and call
me early.
Tennyson.
Hear it pronounced