Definition of "former"

former¹

/ˈfɔɹmɚ/

adjective
comparative form only
1. Previous.
  Quotations
  At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
  1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […]
  The former-slaves-turned-abolitionists Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano were the chief organizers of the Sons of Africa.
  2007, Junius P. Rodriguez, Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World
2. First of aforementioned two items. Used with the, often without a noun.

former²

/ˈfɔɹmɚ/

noun
plural formers
1. Someone who forms something; a maker; a creator or founder.
2. An object used to form something, such as a template, gauge, or cutting die.
3. (chiefly Britain, used in combinations) Someone in, or of, a certain form (class).