Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class I. Words Expressing Abstract Relations
Section VI. Time
3. Time with reference to an Effect or Purpose

132. Earliness.

   NOUN:EARLINESS &c. adj.; morning [See Morning].
  PUNCTUALITY; promptitude (activity) [See Activity]; haste &c (velocity) [See Velocity]; suddenness (instantaneity) [See Instantaneity].
  PREMATURITY, precocity, precipitation, anticipation, prevenience; a stitch in time.
   VERB:BE EARLY &c. adj.; be beforehand &c. adv.; keep time, take time by the forelock, anticipate, forestall; have the start, gain the start; steal a march upon; gain time, draw on futurity; bespeak, secure, engage, preëngage.
  ACCELERATE; expedite (quicken) [See Velocity]; make haste (hurry) [See Haste].
   ADJECTIVE:EARLY, prime, timely, seasonable, in time, punctual, forward; prompt (active) [See Activity]; summary.
  PREMATURE, precipitate, precocious; prevenient, anticipatory; rath or rathe [obs. or poetic].
  SUDDEN (instantaneous) [See Instantaneity]; unexpected [See Inexpectation]; immanent, impending, near, near at hand; immediate.
   ADVERB:EARLY, soon, anon, betimes, rath or rathe [poetic]; eftsoon or eftsoons [archaic]; ere long, before long; punctually &c. adj.; to the minute; in time; in good time, in military time, in pudding time [obs.], in due time; time enough, on time, on the dot [slang].
  BEFOREHAND; prematurely &c. adj.; precipitately (hastily) [See Haste]; too soon; before its time, before one’s time; in anticipation; unexpectedly [See Inexpectation].
  SUDDENLY (instantaneously) [See Instantaneity]; before one can say “Jack Robinson,” at short notice, extempore; on the spur of the moment, on the spur of the occasion [Bacon]; at once; on the spot, on the instant; at sight; off hand, out of hand; à vue d’œil [F.]; straight, straightway, straightforth; forthwith, incontinently, summarily, instanter, forthright [archaic], immediately, briefly, shortly, erewhile [archaic], quickly, speedily, apace, before the ink is dry, almost immediately, presently, at the first opportunity, in no long time, by and by, in a while, directly.
   QUOTATIONS:

1. Touch and go, no sooner said than done.
2. Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre.
3. Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars … get up the night before.—Chesterton