precedentedadj.
/ˈprɛsᵻdɛntᵻd/, U.S. /ˈprɛsəˌdɛn(t)əd/ Provided with or having a precedent; in accordance with or warranted by precedent; paralleled or supported by a similar previous case. Frequently in negative contexts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > a standard of conduct > [adjective] > having the force of an example > that serves as a precedent > furnished with a precedent
precedental1642
precedented1649
1649 W. Blith Eng. Improver 136 And I am confident unlesse the Presidented directions contained in the third piece, the fourteenth and fifteenth Chapter, be most punctually observed, it may suffer losse.
1701 R. Cocks Diary 15 Apr. in D. W. Hayton Parl. Diary Sir R. Cocks (1996) 94 Mr Boyle said that was not regular nor presidented.
1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting I. Pref. p. v When one offers to the public the labours of another person, it is allowable and precedented to expatiate in praise of the work.
1809 E. S. Barrett Setting Sun II. 65 This prayer is, as we have shewn before, precedented and proper.
1880 F. G. Lee Church under Q. Elizabeth I. 275 Notwithstanding their extraordinary but precedented Oath of Homage.
1904 B. Wendell Temper of 17th Cent. in Eng. Lit. i. 23 These noble words..are no more than another effort..to show the hardly precedented effects of which our new-found English was capable.
1975 W. Safire Before Fall III. v. 169 Kissinger was not troubled with the morality of the taps, because..they were precedented (he thought).
1995 Jrnl. Soc. Archit. Historians 54 418/1 Stacking on it, vertiginously, tier after tier with scarcely precedented engineering bravura.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1649