before someone's time

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Prepositional phrase

before someone's time

1. (idiomatic) From before one was born or old enough to be aware of the world.

   Coordinate terms: in one's day, in one's time

   I don't know — that was before my time

   • 2007, Bobby Braddock, Down in Orburndale: A Songwriter's Youth in Old Florida, Louisiana State University Press, published 2007, →ISBN, page 55:

     At thirteen, I liked a lot of music that was before my time: Louis Armstrong and Dixieland jazz, Sousa marches, and barbershop quartet singing.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:before someone's time.
2. (idiomatic) At a stage in one's life, development, etc. that seems premature.

   dead before his time

   • 1951, Johnny Cash, letter to Vivian Cash dated 3 November 1951, reprinted in Vivian Cash (with Ann Sharpsteen), I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny, Scribner (2007), →ISBN, page 38:

     Oh yes, and tell her to take care of herself too, and not get herself all banged up again, or she will look old before her time.

   • 2007, Robin Shannon, Cemeteries of Seattle, Arcadia Publishing, published 2007, →ISBN, page 119:

     Jimi Hendrix is buried at Evergreen Memorial Park in Renton. The electric guitar player extraordinaire died before his time at the young age of 27.

   • 2012, Laura Frantz, Love's Reckoning‎, Revell, published 2012, →ISBN:

     "Unless you become the third apprentice to quit before his time?"

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:before someone's time.

Translations

from before one was born or old enough to be aware of the world

Finnish: ajalta ennen jotakuta Polish: przed czasem

at a stage that seems premature

Finnish: ennen aikojaan, ennenaikaisesti (fi) Polish: przed czasem, za wcześnie Swedish: före sin tid (sv)

See also

• back in the day