• Erewhile

    Alternative forms

    Full definition of erewhile

    Adverb

    erewhile

    1. (archaic or poetic) Some time ago; beforehand
      • 1595, Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's DreamI am as fair now as I was erewhile.
      • 1800s, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., ,The dame sans merci's broken strain,Whom I erewhile, perchance, have known,When Orleans filled the Bourbon throne,A siren singing by the Seine.
      • 1600s, Andrew Marvell, ,She runs you through, nor asks the word.O thou, that dear and happy Isle,The garden of the world erewhile,Thou Paradise of the four seasWhich Heaven planted us to please,
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