Adjacent Words

pre-empt definitions

	Tweet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a high bid that is intended to prevent the opposing players from bidding [syn: preemptive bid, pre-empt, preempt]

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. 1 tr. a forestall. b acquire or appropriate in advance. 2 tr. prevent (an attack) by disabling the enemy. 3 tr. obtain by pre-emption. 4 tr. US take for oneself (esp. public land) so as to have the right of pre-emption. 5 intr. Bridge make a pre-emptive bid. Derivatives: preemptor n. preemptory adj. Etymology: back-form. f. PRE-EMPTION

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pre-empts, pre-empting, pre-empted) Note: in AM, usually use 'preempt' If you pre-empt an action, you prevent it from happening by doing something which makes it unnecessary or impossible. You can pre-empt pain by taking a painkiller at the first warning sign... He pre-empted any decision to sack him... VERB: V n, V n • pre-emption Pre-emption was the only method of averting defeat.