predecease

From pre- +‎ decease.

• IPA^(key): /ˌpɹiːdəˈsiːs/
• Rhymes: -iːs

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predecease (plural predeceases)

1. The death of one person or thing before another.
   • 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Remarkable Incident of Doctor Lanyon”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 59–60:

     ‘Private: for the hands of J. G. Utterson alone and in case of his predecease to be destroyed unread,’ so it was emphatically superscribed; and the lawyer to behold the contents.

predecease (third-person singular simple present predeceases, present participle predeceasing, simple past and past participle predeceased)

1. (transitive) To die sooner than.

   Husbands usually predecease their wives.

   Frederick, Prince of Wales predeceased his father and never became king.

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto)‎, London: Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, , →OCLC:

     If children prædeceaſe progenitours, / VVe are their ofſpring and they none of ours.

• (antonym(s) of “die sooner than”): outlive, postdecease, survive