Premeditate
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To meditate, consider, or plan beforehand; to think about and revolve in the mind beforehand. ambitransitive
"[I]ndeed I began ſincerely to hate my ſelf for a Dog, a VVretch that had been a Thief, and a Murtherer; […] I vvent about vvith my Heart full of theſe Thoughts, little better than a diſtracted Fellovv; in ſhort, running headlong into the dreadfulleſt Deſpair, and premeditated nothing but hovv to rid my ſelf out of the VVorld; […] nothing lay upon my Mind for ſeveral Days, but to ſhoot my ſelf into the Head vvith my Piſtol."
- 2 think or reflect beforehand or in advance wordnet
- 3 consider, ponder, or plan (an action) beforehand wordnet
Example
More examples"[I]ndeed I began ſincerely to hate my ſelf for a Dog, a VVretch that had been a Thief, and a Murtherer; […] I vvent about vvith my Heart full of theſe Thoughts, little better than a diſtracted Fellovv; in ſhort, running headlong into the dreadfulleſt Deſpair, and premeditated nothing but hovv to rid my ſelf out of the VVorld; […] nothing lay upon my Mind for ſeveral Days, but to ſhoot my ſelf into the Head vvith my Piſtol."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin praemeditātus, past participle of praemeditor (“I premeditate”). By surface analysis, pre- + meditate.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.