From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
early
adv 1: during an early stage; "early on in her career" [syn:
early on, early]
2: before the usual time or the time expected; "she graduated
early"; "the house was completed ahead of time" [syn:
early, ahead of time, too soon] [ant: belatedly,
late, tardily]
3: in good time; "he awoke betimes that morning" [syn: early,
betimes]
adj 1: at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of
events or before the usual or expected time; "early
morning"; "an early warning"; "early diagnosis"; "an
early death"; "took early retirement"; "an early spring";
"early varieties of peas and tomatoes mature before most
standard varieties" [ant: late, middle]
2: being or occurring at an early stage of development; "in an
early stage"; "early forms of life"; "early man"; "an early
computer" [ant: late, {later(a)}]
3: belonging to the distant past; "the early inhabitants of
Europe"; "former generations"; "in other times" [syn:
{early(a)}, {former(a)}, {other(a)}]
4: very young; "at an early age"
5: of an early stage in the development of a language or
literature; "the Early Hebrew alphabetical script is that
used mainly from the 11th to the 6th centuries B.C."; "Early
Modern English is represented in documents printed from 1476
to 1700" [ant: late, middle]
6: expected in the near future; "look for an early end to the
negotiations"
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.
[1913 Webster]
Seen in life's early morning sky. --Keble.
[1913 Webster]
The forms of its earlier manhood. --Longfellow.
[1913 Webster]
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]:
Early \Ear"ly\ ([~e]r"l[y^]), adv. [OE. erli, erliche, AS.
[=ae]rl[imac]ce; [=ae]r sooner + l[imac]c like. See Ere,
and Like.]
Soon; in good season; seasonably; betimes; as, come early.
[1913 Webster]
Those that me early shall find me. --Prov. viii.
17.
[1913 Webster]
You must wake and call me early. --Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]