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a- + head. Perhaps originally a nautical term, "beyond the head (of a ship)", then drifting into more general English usage where it is used to describe something as being "in front of".
At or towards the front; in the direction one is facing or moving.
The island was directly ahead.
Just ahead you can see the cliffs.
Keep going straight ahead.
So as to be further advanced, either spatially or in an abstract sense.
He finished two laps ahead of me.
In all of his classes Jack was ahead.
In or for the future.
There may be tough times ahead.
You've got to think ahead so as not to be unprepared.
To a later time.
Set the clock ahead an hour.
Push the deadline ahead a day, from the 20th to the 21st.
1995, Charles Edward Weber, Stories of Virtue in Business, University Press of America, →ISBN, page 55:
Then the customer would set a rebidding deadline ahead a month - for example from September 1 to October 1 - and give everybody four weeks to submit […]
1998, United States House Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition, and Foreign Agriculture, Implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition, and Foreign Agriculture of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fifth Congress, Second Session, June 25, 1998, page 46:
When we saw that wasn't working in 1976, we moved the deadline ahead to 1978.
[…] committees in Congress hae a March 15 deadline for reporting their "views and estimates" to the budget committees. The Senate Republican leadership, eager to get a jump on the annual budget process, moved the deadline ahead to March 1 for Senate committees.
2003, United States House Committee on Government Reform, Smooth Sailing Or an Impending Wreck?: The Impact of New Visa and Passport Requirements on Foreign Travel to the United States : Hearing Before the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, First Session, July 10, 2003, page 113:
[…] the Department is responding to the statutory requirement in the USA Patriot Act that moved the deadline ahead to 2003 from 2007.
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