Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PREC'E-DENT, n.

1. Something done or said, that may serve or be adduced as an example to authorize a subsequent act of the like kind. Examples for cases can but direct as precedents only. – Hooker.
2. In law, a judicial decision, interlocutory or final, which serves as a rule for future determinations in similar or analogous cases; or any proceeding or course of proceedings which may serve for a rule in subsequent cases of a like nature.