What does the word former mean?

Usage examples for former

  1. So that beautiful child is Mrs. Templeton's, or rather Lady Vargrave's, daughter by a former marriage? – Ernest Maltravers, Complete by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
  2. Such was the affection Mr. Carvel's friends bore him that they did not desert him when he was no longer the companion he had been in former years. – Richard Carvel, Complete by Winston Churchill Last Updated: March 5, 2009
  3. For he afterwards makes the former kind of language as much a work of art, as any one will suppose the latter to have been. – The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown