All 7 Uses

precede
in
Snow Falling on Cedars
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The most distressing news story of the preceding ten years had been the wounding of an island resident by a drunken Seattle yachtsman with a shotgun on the Fourth of July, 1951.†
Chpt 1

preceding = prior (in time or space)
The preceding night a fog as palpable as cotton had hung suspended over Island County.†
Chpt 2 *
I would say he cut his hand on the night he died, and in the hour or two just preceding his death.†
Chpt 6
You don't know whether the wound to the head preceded death or not?†
Chpt 6

preceded = went or was before
The sheriff was impressed by the order of this room, its bronze, quiet, and syrupy light, and by the photographs on the wall of the various Heines and assorted Var-igs who had preceded Carl and Susan Marie in the world: stout, impressive, blunt-faced Germans who never smiled for photographers.†
Chpt 6
But later that day, at one o'clock in the afternoon, a clerk at Petersen's—it was Jessica Porter—told Hatsue about the terrible accident that had befallen Carl Heine while he fished the preceding evening.†
Chpt 25

preceding = prior (in time or space)
Kabuo had passed the preceding night wrapped in blankets—his concrete cell was especially cold— and pacing and shivering endlessly.†
Chpt 27

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