> as lemmas

1600 B. Jonson Every Man out of his Humor iv. iv. sig. Niii Cord. Do you obserue the plunges that this poore Gallant is put too (Signior) to purchase the Fashion. Mit. I, and to be still a Fashion behind with the world, that's the sport. View more context for this quotation]

1615 R. Rogers Comm. Bk. Judges lxviii. 578 Their parents are many waies grieued by them in other respects; as to see them crossed and brought behinde hand in the world.

1650 J. Howell Additional Lett. v. 9 in Epistolæ Ho-elianæ (ed. 2) Hee is the happy man who can square his mind to his means,..He who is before hand with the world.

1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti Il Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa ii. ii. 173 All that are in Rome do strive to be aforehand with the world.

1688 G. Miege Great French Dict. ii. sig. Iiii3/2 To be before hand in the World, être à son aise... To be behind hand in the World, faire mal ses Affaires.

1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub ii. 73 Having run something behind-hand with the World.

1777 P. Thicknesse Year's Journey France & Spain (1789) I. 10 My landlord, Monsieur Dessein, who was behind-hand with the world ten years ago, is now become one of the richest men in Calais.

1811 J. Austen Sense & Sensibility I. vi. 66 I shall see how much I am before-hand with the world in the spring.

1849 C. Dickens David Copperfield (1850) xi. 121 ‘And then,’ said Mr. Micawber,..‘I shall, please Heaven, begin to be beforehand with the world,..if—in short, if anything turns up.’