preface by

preface (something) by (doing something)

To do something as an introduction to something else. Often used in passive constructions. Let me preface this statement by first apologizing unreservedly for what has happened. She prefaced her speech by reading well wishes written friends and family from around who couldn't make it to the wedding. The ceremony was prefaced by a performance by the school choir.
See also: by, preface
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

preface something by something

to begin something by saying, writing, or reading something. I would like to preface my prepared remarks by making a personal observation. Her remarks were prefaced by the reading of a poem.
See also: by, preface
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • all right
  • a/the feel of (something)
  • (I) wouldn't (do something) if I were you
  • (you've) got to get up pretty early in the morning to (do something)
  • a straw will show which way the wind blows
  • a crack at (someone or something)
  • a walking
  • a walking (something)
  • (you) wanna make something of it?
  • all for the best
References in periodicals archive
Kirn, C.S.B., with an Introduction by Kirn and a Preface by L.
Jacques Maritain's legacy in Canada
It includes a preface by Ernesto Cardenal and an epilogue by Gustavo Gutierrez.
Political Holiness: A Spirituality of Liberation
" The second edition of Lyrical Ballads contains a preface by Wordsworth, explaining his theory that poetry should be drawn from the everyday life and speech of men; this preface came to be considered the manifesto of English romanticism.
Lyrical Ballads
Tedeschi of Carlo Ginzburg's 1986 title Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method includes a new preface by the author.
Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method (reprint, 1989)
Each collection--Waiting/or Food (1995) and Waiting for Food 2 (2000)--has a preface by Crumb, the first of these, quoted above, being brief, matter-of-fact, but friendly; it even ends with restaurant recommendations, "in case you are ever in Sauve."
R. CRUMB
Parmar begins her preface by relating the experience of a fourteen-year-old Egyptian girl and the graphic image of the child's agonizing death following the excision of her clitoris and labia minora.
Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women
"A Description of the Sistine Chapel under Pope Sixtus IV" uses a passage in a Latin preface by Andreas Trapezuntius, son of George, to illuminate the early history of the famed Vatican chapel.
Language and Learning in Renaissance Italy: Selected Articles