noun
definition
An existing criminal record (short for "previous convictions")
example
It turned out the shoplifter had a lot of previous.
synonyms
definition
A track record of similar behaviour.
adjective
definition
Prior; occurring before something else, either in time or order.
example
He is no better than the previous Prime Minister.
definition
Premature; acting or occurring too soon.
Examples of previous in a Sentence
The night was dark but starry, the road showed black in the snow that had fallen the previous day--the day of the battle.
Nothing remained of the previous day's thoughts.
She paused in the hallway to gaze at a picture of Jonny and her from the previous summer.
He recalled her outburst at him the previous day.
In the kitchen she paused, remembering a previous conversation with Alex.
In my previous life, I was nearly invincible.
Certainly, he would never be able to return to his previous lifestyle.
On the previous Sunday the old count had given his son two thousand rubles, and though he always disliked speaking of money difficulties had told Nicholas that this was all he could let him have till May, and asked him to be more economical this time.
I had no plans to share with Howie what I'd learned of his previous life.
While the previous two points focused at the macro level and the overall costs of war, I speak here of consumers' perspective on war.
It was his reckless drunkenness which ultimately ruined him in the estimation of Peter the Great, despite his previous inestimable services.
Looking back on the previous chapters of my life, I am very thankful for my family's love and support.
They had accomplished quite a bit the previous day, and Sarah felt comfortable about being away for the next two days.
The work of Farel, previous to his coming to Geneva, was almost entirely evangelistic, and his first work in Geneva was of a similar character.
It must be admitted that the gorgeousness of ritual described by the Chronicler is far more in harmony with the days of Simon than with any previous post-exilic period.
Moreover, the menace of attack on the Zulu side was a serious one, however able the Boers may have been to meet a foe who fought in the open, and who had been beaten by them in previous wars.
To one or two men this scheme, subsequently known as The the Jameson Plan, had been revealed in the previous June, but to the majority even of the small group of leaders it was not known till October or November 1895.
Its immediate task was to neutralize the after-effects of the schism, which had only been terminated in the previous year by the death of Anacletus II.
Gela had in the previous year received the fugitive inhabitants of Acragas (Agrigentum), which had been sacked by the Carthaginians.
The character of modern medicine cannot be summed in a word, as, with more or less aptness, that of some previous periods may be.
His premiership was the reward of undoubted services rendered to his party; it may be said, however, that, in contradistinction to the prime ministers for some time previous, he represented the party, rather than that the party represented him.
Although they made some concessions, .the Beaujeus succeeded in maintaining the results of the previous reign, and in triumphing over the feudal intrigues and coalitions, as was seen from the meeting of the estates general in 1484, and the results of the "Mad War" (1485) and the war with Brittany (1488); and in spite of the efforts of Maximilian of Austria they concluded the marriage of Charles VIII.
At the coronation of George III., one of the king's grooms appeared "in a scarlet dress, holding a perfuming pan, burning perfumes, as at previous coronations."
The growth and population of London previous to the Igth century is considered under Histor y, ad fin.
Previous to the act of 1903 the County Council had educational powers under the Technical Technical Instructions Acts which enabled it to provide Technical technical education through a special board, merged by the act of 1903 in the education committee.
Previous deputies had addressed the king on their bended knees, whereas the representatives of the Catholics had been permitted to stand.
It was decided in the affirmative previous to his return; but he approved with astonishing eloquence, and thereafter was ever in the front rank in maintaining intercommunication between all churches holding the main doctrines of the Reformation.
Under the common law the owner of the surface possesses all mining rights as well, unless these have been reserved by some previous owner of the property.
It had always been assumed during previous discussions on the question that warships adventuring the passage would try a rush, that they would endeavour to steam by the, batteries and drive the `defending gunners from their guns by concentrated fire.
Meyer in a pamphlet Ueber das geschichtete electrische Licht surpassed all previous forms in both simplicity and efficiency.
Mirror plates previous to the invention had been made from blown " sheet " glass, and were consequently very limited in size.
He mentions in it only one previous enterprise of the same kind (though there had in fact been others) - that, namely, of Nicholas Francois Canard (c. 1750-1833 ), whose book, Principes d'economie politique (Paris, 1802), was crowned by the French Academy, though "its principles were radically false as well as erroneously applied."
This varies in metals from 594 (lithium) to 22.48 (osmium), and in one and the same species is a function of temperature and of previous physical and mechanical treatment.
By a previous Anglo-Belgian protocol (May 1910) the Congo-Uganda frontier had been modified so as to give Belgium the western shores of Albert Nyanza and in Feb.
From a collection of the best experiments by previous workers he selected eighty-two (fifty-one on the velocity of water in conduit pipes, and thirty-one on its velocity in open canals); and, discussing these on physical and mechanical principles, he succeeded in drawing up general formulae, which afforded a simple expression for the velocity of running water.
Previous to the adoption of the single gold standard in 1897 the monetary history of Peru had been unfortunate.
He notes the convenience of the method for solar observations and its previous use by some of the observers already mentioned, as well as its advantages for easily and accurately copying on an enlarged or reduced scale, especially for chorographical or topographical documents.
There is a great deal of practical information on lenses in connexion with the camera and other optical instruments, and the book is valuable as a repertory of early practical optics, also for the numerous references to and extracts from previous writers.
The glare of these seemed to the allies to betoken the familiar device of lighting fires previous to a retreat, and thus confirmed them in the impression which Napoleon's calculated timidity had given.
The keep is doubtfully assigned to a date previous to the Conquest; the important position on the Welsh March led to several subsequent additions, especially in the 14th century, and the castle was only dismantled by order of the Parliamentarians after it had strongly resisted their arms on behalf of Charles I.
The most important domestic event of Grant's first term as president was the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution on the 30th of March 1870, providing that suffrage throughout the United States should not be restricted on account of race, colour or previous condition of servitude.
This is formed as a two-layered "polypide-bud," which usually develops from the inner side of the zooecial wall, and soon occupies the place of the previous polypide.
In the previous year the earl of Auckland, governor-general, had yielded to the "Orientalists" who opposed Duff, and adopted a policy which was a compromise between the two.
At the beginning of the Christian era, and for many previous centuries, no eruption had been known to take place from the mountain, and the volcanic nature of the locality was perhaps not even suspected by the inhabitants who planted their vineyards along its fertile slopes, and built their numerous villages and towns around its base.
In 1829 he entered upon his life's work, having been licensed to preach during the summer vacation of the previous year.
The system for which the Positive Philosophy is alleged to have been the scientific preparation contains a Polity and a Religion; a complete arrangement of life in all its aspects, giving a wider sphere to Intellect, Energy and Feeling than could be found in any of the previous organic types, - Greek, Roman or Catholic-feudal.
Chretien left his poem unfinished, and we do not know how he intended to complete the adventures of his hero; but those writers who undertook the task, Wauchier de Denain, Gerbert de Montreuil and Manessier, carried it out with such variety of detail, and such a bewildering indifference to Chretien's version, that it seems practically certain that there must have been, previous to Chretien's work, more than one poem dealing with the same theme.
The Jews, who had been attacked by the popular party, were solemnly reinstated by imperial command in all their previous privileges, and received full compensation for their losses.
The present generation is more systematically commercial in its glyptic produce than any previous age.
How his affairs fell into this condition, why he did not die in his own house, and why in the previous summer he had been in hiding, as we know he was from a letter still extant, are points not clearly explained.