PRECEDENT in a Sentence

Learn PRECEDENT from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For PRECEDENT, below is one of 213 sentences:
The aldermen did as they had done before, and preceded by their sergeants, advanced to receive their illustrious guest.

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 Meanings and Examples of PRECEDENT
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
precedent
 n.  act or instance that may be used as example in subsequent similar cases
Classic Sentence: (185 in 13 pages)
1  In spite of her sedentary habits such abrupt decisions were not without precedent in Zeena's history.
Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In III
2  It was the builder's custom to pay at the end of three months, and there was no precedent between the two men for a cash settlement.
Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In IV
3  Now for the Trenors, you remember, he chose the Corinthian: exuberant, but based on the best precedent.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: Chapter 14
4  On her way home: "Now that I've made a precedent, joined the union and gone out on one strike and learned personal solidarity, I won't be so afraid."
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVIII
5  It is not a convenient precedent at all.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 35. DEPRESSION
6  Its reception into the Union was a precedent which may have far-reaching effects hereafter, when the Pole and the Tropics may hold alliance to the Stars and Stripes.
Dracula By Bram Stoker
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVIII
7  And observe that Cleopatra's pun preceded the battle of Actium, and that had it not been for it, no one would have remembered the city of Toryne, a Greek name which signifies a ladle.
Les Misérables 1 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3: CHAPTER VII—THE WISDOM OF THOLOMYES
8  It was a seignorial garden in the first French style which preceded Le Notre; to-day it is ruins and briars.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER II—HOUGOMONT
9  Enormous patrols, composed of battalions of the Line, enclosed in entire companies of the National Guard, and preceded by a commissary of police wearing his scarf of office, went to reconnoitre the streets in rebellion.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 10: CHAPTER IV—THE EBULLITIONS OF FORMER DAYS
10  During the few hours which had preceded the attack, it had been reported among them that the insurgents were mutilating their prisoners, and that there was the headless body of a soldier in the wine-shop.
Les Misérables 5 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XXII—FOOT TO FOOT
11  D'Artagnan bowed without replying, feeling his desire to don the Musketeer's uniform vastly increased by the great difficulties which preceded the attainment of it.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 3 THE AUDIENCE
12  Planchet called his master's attention to a gentleman who had just arrived with his lackey, and only preceded them by about fifty paces.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 20 THE JOURNEY
13  The aldermen did as they had done before, and preceded by their sergeants, advanced to receive their illustrious guest.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 22 THE BALLET OF LA MERLAISON
14  He rose, and preceded by the host wringing his hands, and followed by Planchet with his musketoon ready for use, he approached the scene of action.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 27 THE WIFE OF ATHOS
15  All the spectators returned him his salute, accompanying this courtesy with a loud hurrah which was audible to the four; after which all four disappeared in the bastion, whither Grimaud had preceded them.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 46 THE BASTION SAINT-GERVAIS
Example Sentence: (28 in 2 pages)
1  The trial could set an important precedent for dealing with large numbers of similar cases.
2  Legal experts said her case would not set a precedent because it was an out-of-court settlement.
3  This case could serve as a precedent for others against the tobacco companies.
4  The judgment set a new precedent.
5  How to determine what a precedent is authority for are talked by the lawyers.
6  It could herald a much bigger change: the precedent set would surely entice others to follow, why should a restaurant settle for paying an extra twice as much to accept credit-card fees?
7  The days that preceded were filled with activity.
8  Intensive negotiations between the main parties preceded the vote.
9  He preceded me as chairman of the department.
10  Any discussion of legal action must be preceded by a caveat on costs.
11  He preceded his speech with a warning against inattention.
12  Lunch will be preceded by a short speech from the chairman.
13  In his last two years as pope, Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests for raping and molesting children, more than twice as many as the two years that preceded a 2010 explosion of sex abuse cases in Europe and beyond
14  It displays the relationship between the target item and the preceding entry.
15  Each faucet had a corner immediately preceding the opening through which the water came out.