preoccupy
to absorb or engross to the exclusion of other things.
to occupy beforehand or before others.
Origin of preoccupy
1Other words from preoccupy
- pre·oc·cu·pi·er, noun
- o·ver·pre·oc·cu·py, verb (used with object), o·ver·pre·oc·cu·pied, o·ver·pre·oc·cu·py·ing.
Words Nearby preoccupy
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use preoccupy in a sentence
To modern workers everywhere,To modern workers everywhere,In the 1960s, American architects were preoccupied with erecting iconic buildings along city skylines.
In the 1960s, America’s architects were mostly preoccupied with erecting iconic buildings along city skylines.
Remembering the architect who birthed our obsession with beautiful office interiors | Anne Quito | May 15, 2021 | QuartzThese days, Brown gets up every morning, logs on to her computer and pretends to work while her son is preoccupied with school assignments.
These Mothers Wanted to Care for Their Kids and Keep Their Jobs. Now They're Suing After Being Fired | Eliana Dockterman | March 3, 2021 | TimeWe won’t be preoccupied with cooking or getting ready for guests.
I will be lonely on Thanksgiving. But that will not stop me from celebrating. | Kellie B. Gormly | November 23, 2020 | Washington PostBoth can be preoccupied with beauty, but design also has to function to be successful.
Fashion is struggling to rise to the creative challenge of Covid-19 | Marc Bain | October 14, 2020 | Quartz
“They” want to “stop us from talking about subjects that preoccupy you,” he argued.
Why Toulouse Terror Fears Won’t Help Sarkozy With Voters | Tracy McNicoll | March 30, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTTo preoccupy this ground, therefore, seemed an important step.
Xerxes | Jacob AbbottOn a first reading, the pathetic passages preoccupy the reader, and he is cheated out of an alms in the shape of sympathy.
Familiar Studies of Men and Books | Robert Louis StevensonHe refers, for proof of his statements, mostly to English documents, and does not try to preoccupy your mind.
The Government should preoccupy itself largely with this matter of assimilation: for the process is not complete.
The Argentine in the Twentieth Century | Albert B. MartinezShe expostulated earnestly with him on the folly of allowing money cares and ambitions to preoccupy him.
Mary Wollstonecraft | Elizabeth Robins Pennell
British Dictionary definitions for preoccupy
/ (priːˈɒkjʊˌpaɪ) /
to engross the thoughts or mind of
to occupy before or in advance of another
Origin of preoccupy
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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