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forestall - 4 dictionary results

fore⋅stall

  [fohr-stawl, fawr-]
Use forestall in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to prevent, hinder, or thwart by action in advance: to forestall a riot by deploying police.
2. to act beforehand with or get ahead of; anticipate.
3. to buy up (goods) in advance in order to increase the price when resold.
4. to prevent sales at (a fair, market, etc.) by buying up or diverting goods.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME forstallen, v. deriv. of forstalle, OE foresteall intervention (to defeat justice), waylaying. See fore-, stall 2

Related forms:
fore⋅stall⋅er, noun
fore⋅stall⋅ment, forestalment, noun

Synonyms:
1. preclude, obviate, intercept, obstruct. 2. prevent, avert.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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fore·stall   (fôr-stôl', fōr-)   
tr.v.   fore·stalled, fore·stall·ing, fore·stalls
  1. To delay, hinder, or prevent by taking precautionary measures beforehand. See Synonyms at prevent.
  2. To deal with or think of beforehand; anticipate.
  3. To prevent or hinder normal sales in (a market) by buying up merchandise, discouraging persons from bringing their goods to market, or encouraging an increase in prices in goods already on sale.

[Middle English forestallen, to waylay and rob, from forestal, highway robbery, ambush, from Old English foresteall : fore-, fore- + steall, position; see stel- in Indo-European roots.]
fore·stall'er n., fore·stall'ment n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Forestall

Fore*stall"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Forestalled; p. pr. & vb. n. Forestalling.] [OE. forstallen to stop, to obstruct; to stop (goods) on the way to the market by buying them beforehand, from forstal obstruction, AS. forsteal, foresteall, prop., a placing one's self before another. See Fore, and Stall.]

1. To take beforehand, or in advance; to anticipate.

What need a man forestall his date of grief, And run to meet what he would most avoid? --Milton.

2. To take possession of, in advance of some one or something else, to the exclusion or detriment of the latter; to get ahead of; to preoccupy; also, to exclude, hinder, or prevent, by prior occupation, or by measures taken in advance.

An ugly serpent which forestalled their way. --Fairfax.

But evermore those damsels did forestall Their furious encounter. --Spenser.

To be forestalled ere we come to fall. --Shak.

Habit is a forestalled and obstinate judge. --Rush.

3. To deprive; -- with of. [R.]

All the better; may This night forestall him of the coming day! --Shak.

4. (Eng. Law) To obstruct or stop up, as a way; to stop the passage of on highway; to intercept on the road, as goods on the way to market.

To forestall the market, to buy or contract for merchandise or provision on its way to market, with the intention of selling it again at a higher price; to dissuade persons from bringing their goods or provisions there; or to persuade them to enhance the price when there. This was an offense at law in England until 1844. --Burrill.

Syn: To anticipate; monopolize; engross.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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forestall 
O.E. foresteall "an ambush, a waylaying," from fore "before" + steall "standing position" (see stall (1)). Modern sense of "to anticipate and delay" is from 1585.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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