1. to be of an earlier date than; to precede in time
2. to assign an earlier date to something than the actual date

1. a date that is earlier than the actual or specified date

Examples

• The ancient ruins antedate the Roman Empire by several centuries.
• Archaeological evidence shows that human settlement antedates written records.
• The lawyer decided to antedate the contract to make it effective from last month.
• She antedated the check so it would appear to have been written earlier.
• The manuscript bears an antedate that suggests it was written before the author’s known works.
• Carbon dating revealed that the artifacts antedate previously discovered specimens.
• The company antedated the policy change to cover incidents from the previous quarter.