PREPARATORY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does preparatory mean? 

• PREPARATORY (adjective)
  The adjective PREPARATORY has 1 sense:

1. preceding and preparing for something

  Familiarity information: PREPARATORY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PREPARATORY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Preceding and preparing for something

Synonyms:

preparative; preparatory; propaedeutic

Context example:

preparatory steps

Similar:

preceding (existing or coming before)

Derivation:

prepare (make ready or suitable or equip in advance for a particular purpose or for some use, event, etc)

prepare (undergo training or instruction in preparation for a particular role, function, or profession)

prepare (create by training and teaching)

prepare (educate for a future role or function)

 Context examples 

A very successful visit:—I saw all the three ladies; and felt very much obliged to you for your preparatory hint.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"I like good strong words that mean something," replied Jo, catching her hat as it took a leap off her head preparatory to flying away altogether.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I must inform you, gentlemen, that the Priory is a preparatory school, of which I am the founder and principal.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were slates and bricks piled up on the roof preparatory to some repairs, and they would have me believe that the wind had toppled over one of these.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

NOTE(S): Whether administrative or preparatory activities are included in this time frame is up to whoever is defining the activity - this time frame is all that matters when the activity occurred.

(Performed Activity Actual Date Range, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)

Van Helsing is lying down, having a rest preparatory to his journey.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The time having come for her withdrawal for the night, and she having left us, I gave Mr. Wickfield my hand, preparatory to going away myself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

These were the two men who entered abruptly into our little sitting-room on Tuesday, March the 16th, shortly after our breakfast hour, as we were smoking together, preparatory to our daily excursion upon the moors.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After having made a few preparatory experiments, he concluded with a panegyric upon modern chemistry, the terms of which I shall never forget: The ancient teachers of this science, said he, promised impossibilities and performed nothing.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The earliest intelligence of the travellers' safe arrival at Antigua, after a favourable voyage, was received; though not before Mrs. Norris had been indulging in very dreadful fears, and trying to make Edmund participate them whenever she could get him alone; and as she depended on being the first person made acquainted with any fatal catastrophe, she had already arranged the manner of breaking it to all the others, when Sir Thomas's assurances of their both being alive and well made it necessary to lay by her agitation and affectionate preparatory speeches for a while.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)