adj.
1 former, prior, past, earlier, one-time, foregoing, sometime, erstwhile, preceding, Literary quondam, Archaic whilom:
A previous owner of the house filled in the fish-pond.
2 prior, former, foregoing, above, preceding, Formal antecedent, anterior, aforementioned, above-mentioned, before-mentioned, aforesaid, above-named:
Please see the previous examples in the Foreword.
3 premature, untimely, too soon or early:
Isn't putting up Christmas decorations in October being a bit previous?
4 previous to. previously to, before, prior to, preceding, anterior to, antecedent to:
Previous to the advent of motor cars, we had traffic jams of horse-drawn vehicles.