prior

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Preceding in time or order: "[They] insist that foreign vessels seeking access obtain prior approval” ( Seymour M. Hersh).
2. adj. Preceding in importance or value: a prior consideration.
3. n. A monastic officer in charge of a priory or ranking next below the abbot of an abbey.
4. n. One of the ruling magistrates of the medieval Italian republic of Florence.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Preceding, as in the order of time, of thought, of origin, of dignity, or of importance; in law, senior in point of time: as, a prior and a junior incumbrance.
2. Previous: used adverbially, followed by to, like previous. See previous, a.
3. n. A superior officer; a superior. Specifically— Eccles., an official in the monastic orders next in dignity and rank to an abbot. Before the thirteen th century he seems to have been called provost (præpositus) or prelate (prælatus), and prior seems to have meant any superior or senior. If in an abbey, and an assistant of the abbot, he is called a claustral prior; if the superior of a priory—that is, of a monastery of lower than abbatial rank—he is called a conventical or conventual prior. The superiors of the houses of regular canons were always called priors, and the commandants of the priories of the military orders of St. John of Jerusalem, of Malta, and of the Templars were called grand priors. See hegumen.
4. n. Formerly, in Italy, a chief magistrate, as in the medieval republic of Florence.
5. n. Synonyms Abbot, Prior. See def. .

Wiktionary

1. adj. Of that which comes before, in advance.
2. adj. former, previous
3. adv. colloquial Previously.
4. n. A high-ranking member of a monastery, usually lower in rank than an abbot.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Preceding in the order of time; former; antecedent; anterior; previous.
2. adj. First, precedent, or superior in the order of cognition, reason or generality, origin, development, rank, etc.
3. n. (Eccl.) The superior of a priory, and next below an abbot in dignity.
4. n. a chief magistrate, as in the republic of Florence in the middle ages.
5. n. informal a prior conviction; -- said of an accused criminal.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. earlier in time
2. n. the head of a religious order; in an abbey the prior is next below the abbot