Definition of "premise"

The premises observed,Thy will by my performance shall be served.

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]

While the premises stand firm, 'tis impossible to shake the conclusion.

1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […]

On the premises is a beautiful lawn, well stocked with flowering shrubs; hard and soft water.

1899 September 27, The Daily Review (Peterborough, Ont., Canada), volume 37, number 72, page 1a

Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

In 1949, the simple premise of discovering ordinary people who have hidden, extraordinary talents came to prominence in the UK with Opportunity Knocks, which started out as a nationwide touring radio show, before moving onto TV in 1956.

2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How talent shows became TV's most bizarre programmes”, in BBC‎

I premise these particulars that the reader may know that I enter upon it as a very ungrateful task.

1712 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, February 2, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 291; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853

Having premised thus much, we will now detain those who like our bill of fare no longer from their diet, and shall proceed directly to serve up the first course of our history for their entertainment.

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

the premised flames of the last day

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]

if venesection can be previously performed, even to but few ounces, the effect of the opium is much more certain; and still more so, if there be time to premise a brisk cathartic, or even an emetic

1794–1796, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia