Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Early

Early (ẽr"ly) , adverb

[Old English erli, erliche, Anglo-Saxon arlīce; ar sooner + līc like. See Ere, and Like.]

Soon; in good season; seasonably; betimes; as, come early.
Those that me early shall find me. — Bible (KJV) - Proverb viii. 17
You must wake and call me early. — Tennyson

Early (ẽr"li*ẽr) , adjective

[Old English earlich. r204. See Early, adv.]

1.
In advance of the usual or appointed time; in good season; prior in time; among or near the first; -- opposed to late; as, the early bird; an early spring; early fruit.
Early and provident fear is the mother of safety. — Burke
The doorsteps and threshold with the early grass springing up about them. — Hawthorne
2.
Coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the first of successive acts, events, etc.
Seen in life's early morning sky. — Keble
The forms of its earlier manhood. — Longfellow
The earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth summer. — J. C. Shairp
Collocations (2)
Early English (Philology) , See the Note under English.
Early English architecture , the first of the pointed or Gothic styles used in England, succeeding the Norman style in the 12th and 13th centuries.