Early /(ẽr"ly̆)/

Ear·ly

Early

adv.
  1. 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.

Early

a.
  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.
    The doorsteps and threshold with the early grass springing up about them.
  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.
    The forms of its earlier manhood.
    The earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth summer.
    — J. C. Shairp.

Phrases & Compounds
Early English
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.