preface

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preface (something) by (doing something)

To do something as an introduction to something else. Often used in passive constructions. Let me preface this statement by first apologizing unreservedly for what has happened. She prefaced her speech by reading well wishes written friends and family from around who couldn't make it to the wedding. The ceremony was prefaced by a performance by the school choir.
See also: by, preface

preface (something) with (doing something)

To recite something as an introduction to something else. Often used in passive constructions. Let me preface this statement with an unreserved apology for what has happened. We should always preface these board meetings with a reading of the previous meeting's minutes.
See also: preface
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

preface something by something

to begin something by saying, writing, or reading something. I would like to preface my prepared remarks by making a personal observation. Her remarks were prefaced by the reading of a poem.
See also: by, preface

preface something with something

to begin something with a particular message. She prefaced her speech with a recitation of one of her favorite poems. Alice prefaced her remarks with a few personal comments.
See also: preface
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive ?
The preface is a prompt for playful thinking with texts, as much as it is conventionally the prosaic product of such an exercise.
Pretexts for Writing
Hemingway's prefaces exude the self-assurance of a successful
Breaking Forelegs: Hemingway's Early Prefaces
The present paper aims to examine translators' prefaces in literary translations from Malay into English.
The translator's preface as a paratextual device in Malay-English literary translations
The present focus, similarly to Oktar and Kansu-Yetkiner's, (3) is intentionally narrower than the others, as it only takes into account prefaces to English translations of Dante's entire Divine Comedy or of individual cantiche.
Persuasive spaces: translators' prefaces to the Divine Comedy
This review, then, is a consideration, not of Conrad's prefaces themselves, but of their presentation by Owen Knowles as editor of the 2016 version of Edward Garnett's original 1937 Dent edition, imputedly a revisiting but in fact a major revision.
Joseph Conrad. Joseph Conrad: Prefaces
In the top-down procedure, moves were identified on the basis of function or content of the prefaces (the data of this study).
La autopromocion de los libros de texto academicos en la seccion del prefacio: un analisis de genero
(10) With the ways in which Askew's texts resist Bale's interpretative frame already an active and productive site of current scholarship, this essay focuses precisely on Bale's framing activity, arguing that male-authored prefaces such as Bale's shed important light on the ways women's texts were produced, circulated, and consumed in the early modern literary market.
Framing the reformation woman writer: John Bale's prefaces to Anne Askew's Examinations
Perhaps the most pressing point made throughout this discussion has been that the edge of this text, or for that matter, of any text, matters for both our interpretation of the material it prefaces and our construction as readers.
On the edge of the text preface and reader in Ovid's Amores
Lamartine is a virtuoso of the preface as a personal, reflective, autobiographical as well as theoretical genre.
Lamartine, Alphonse de. Avertissements, prefaces et propos sur la poesie et la litterature
Celine Masbou likewise presents a fine example of an analysis of a scholarly preface in her study of Father Brumoy's presentation of Le Theatre des Grecs.
L'Art de la preface au siecle des Lumieres
Prince Amerigo is the reader whom James will hope to influence through his prefaces. He allows Maggie to guide him toward reading creatively.
Vindication against misreading in The Golden Bowl, The American Scene, and the New York Edition
But, if given the option, I think I would, for example, try to improve all the music for the Prefaces; I would strive for more chant-oriented melodic lines; I would expand the congregational song to include more musical options for the Kyrie and possibly reconsider assembly participation in music during the Eucharistic prayer.
About setting one
Contemporary critics, however, emphasise that Scott's historical novel may well be "the direct continuation of the great social novel of the eighteenth century", as Luckacs described it (1962 [1989]: 31), and a forerunner of the Victorian novel, but what traditional critics ignored, or considered as its deficiency was a great degree of self-consciousness, most apparent in the prefaces with which Scott supplied most of his texts.
In the space between history and fiction -- the role of Walter Scott's fictional prefaces. (Literature)
Sections 19 to 33 are on general principles for all translation; 34-45 give norms for translating Scripture and preparing lectionaries; 46-62 give norms for translating the non-scripture prayers, prefaces, etc.; and 63-69 cover norms for "special types of text," such as the Creed, the Eucharistic prayer, and rubrics.
Liturgiam authenticam, Part II
Quinn devotes chapter three (certainly one of the book's most important, and most interesting, chapters) to an analysis of the prefaces to Safavid historical texts.
Historical Writing During the Reign of Shah Abbas: Ideology, Imitation, and Legitimacy in Safavid Chronicles. (Reviews of Books)
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