pre-seasonadj.n.

1897 Chicago Tribune 19 Mar. 8/4 He has lost his customary pre-season modesty and declares that the weather is the only thing the Colts cannot beat this year.

1930 Jrnl. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 25 195 These measures indicate that the passage of time is over five times as important as the pre-season price of cotton in accounting for the acreage of cotton.

1961 Dallas Morning News 10 Oct. 2–2 It looks as if coach Hank Stram's men will meet the Bills just as they are developing into the kind of team they were expected to be in pre-season reckonings.

1979 N.Y. Post 10 Aug. 17 In one of our most bizarre pre-season presidential campaigns, an incumbent President is being dismissed by both the opposition and large sectors of his own party as a non-person.

1996 Daily Tel. 6 Dec. 12/1 Like numerous cars and even the odd chalet, the cannon are hidden beneath the heaviest pre-season snowfalls since records began.

1914 Los Angeles Times 17 Oct. 7/1 Three prep Rugby games—the greatest of the pre-season—will be played today on the local gridirons.

1945 Charleroi (Pa.) Mail 29 Dec. 5/6 Coach Spotovich's team has done very well during the pre-season.

1977 Washington Post (Nexis) 22 May c10 When we got all those injuries in the preseason, people all over the country wrote us off for the year.

2001 FourFourTwo Sept. 77/2 Rather than just disappear on holiday until pre-season, they had to summon on up the Arsenal spirit almost immediately.