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View synonyms for preoccupy

preoccupy

[ pree-ok-yuh-pahy ]

verb (used with object)

, pre·oc·cu·pied, pre·oc·cu·py·ing.
  1. to absorb or engross to the exclusion of other things.
  2. to occupy beforehand or before others.


preoccupy

/ priːˈɒkjʊˌpaɪ /

verb

  1. to engross the thoughts or mind of
  2. to occupy before or in advance of another


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Other Words From

  • pre·occu·pier noun
  • over·pre·occu·py verb (used with object) overpreoccupied overpreoccupying

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Word History and Origins

Origin of preoccupy1

First recorded in 1560–70; pre- + occupy

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Word History and Origins

Origin of preoccupy1

C16: from Latin praeoccupāre to capture in advance, from prae before + occupāre to seize, take possession of

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Example Sentences

To modern workers everywhere,To modern workers everywhere,In the 1960s, American architects were preoccupied with erecting iconic buildings along city skylines.

From Quartz

In the 1960s, America’s architects were mostly preoccupied with erecting iconic buildings along city skylines.

From Quartz

These days, Brown gets up every morning, logs on to her computer and pretends to work while her son is preoccupied with school assignments.

From Time

We won’t be preoccupied with cooking or getting ready for guests.

Both can be preoccupied with beauty, but design also has to function to be successful.

From Quartz

“They” want to “stop us from talking about subjects that preoccupy you,” he argued.

To preoccupy this ground, therefore, seemed an important step.

On a first reading, the pathetic passages preoccupy the reader, and he is cheated out of an alms in the shape of sympathy.

He 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.

She expostulated earnestly with him on the folly of allowing money cares and ambitions to preoccupy him.

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