From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
earlier
adj : (comparative and superlative of `early') more early than;
most early; "a fashion popular in earlier times"; "his
earlier work reflects the influence of his teacher";
"Verdi's earliest and most raucous opera" [syn:
earliest]
adv 1: earlier in time; previously; "I had known her before"; "as I
said before"; "he called me the day before but your
call had come even earlier"; "her parents had died
four years earlier"; "I mentioned that problem
earlier" [syn: before]
2: comparatives of `soon' or `early'; "Come a little sooner, if
you can"; "came earlier than I expected" [syn: sooner]
3: before now; "why didn't you tell me in the first place?"
[syn: in the first place, in the beginning, {to begin
with}, originally]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Early \Ear"ly\, a. [Compar. Earlier ([~e]r"l[i^]*[~e]r);
superl. Earliest.] [OE. earlich. [root]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.
[1913 Webster]
Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
--Burke.
[1913 Webster]
The doorsteps and threshold with the early grass
springing up about them. --Hawthorne.
[1913 Webster]
2. Coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the
first of successive acts, events, etc.
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Seen in life's early morning sky. --Keble.
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The forms of its earlier manhood. --Longfellow.
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The earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth
summer. --J. C.
Shairp.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
earlier \earlier\ adj.
occurring at a prior time; as, on earlier occasions.
[WordNet 1.5]