Definition of "antedate" []

• To be of an earlier date than; precede in time. (verb-transitive)
• To assign to a date earlier than that of the actual occurrence. (verb-transitive)
• To date as of a time before that of actual execution: antedate a contract; antedate a check. (verb-transitive)
• A date given to an event or a document that is earlier than the actual date. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Many of the works we’d name antedate Willy the Wizard."
• "CO2 concentrations tend in the main to follow changes in global temperature not to antedate it."
• "And several new sources are added, most of them American, two of which now antedate Hotten."