precede

"They were questioned as witnesses and later their identities were fully confirmed via social networks, mobile phones, and partial radio intercepts that preceded the event. The entire unit in that sector was tracked."

She didn’t put the word “abuse” to the resentments and rages Dunne was well known for; she didn’t acknowledge alcohol’s role in the cascade of illnesses preceding Quintana’s death.

They are deployed for pauses and interruptions in speech; they precede bursts of exposition, neat summings-up and lengthy tangents.

Meanwhile, as the overcrowding worsened, more dogs and cats were euthanized in city shelters under her watch than in the preceding years.

They also noted cats rubbed their faces against the tubes after sniffing - which cats do to mark their scent on something - indicating that sniffing may be an exploratory behaviour that precedes odour marking.