All 7 Uses

preparatory
in
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
(Auto-generated)

Those shy prep school guys at mixers with their endearing long hands and blushing complexions, I could make them laugh.†
Chpt 1.5
It was a decadent atmosphere for me whose previous experience of dating had been mixers and parlor calls from boys at prep school.†
Chpt 1.5
Stuff like that, and soon she was writing away to preparatory schools (all-girls ones) where we would meet and mix with the "right kind" of Americans.†
Chpt 2.6
It was a long train ride up to our prep school in Boston, and there were guys on that train.
Chpt 2.6 *

prep school = preceding and preparing for something
When he's in the States, where he went to prep school and is now in college, he's one of us, our buddy.†
Chpt 2.6
Half the time he doesn't know whether he's using his CIA crash course in Spanish or his prep school Latin or his college French.†
Chpt 3.11
Immediately, he looked up his old classmate Mundo, who comes from one of those old wealthy families who send their kids to the States to prep school, and the boys on to college.†
Chpt 3.11

Definitions:

(1) (preparatory)
done to get ready for something that will happen later
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
The expressions preparatory school and preparatory classes typically imply preparation for college. Often, preparatory school is shortened to prep school.