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.
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.
