PREOCCUPY

preoccupy

(verb) engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively; “His work preoccupies him”; “The matter preoccupies her completely--she cannot think of anything else”

preoccupy

(verb) occupy or take possession of beforehand or before another or appropriate for use in advance; “the army preoccupied the hills”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

preoccupy (third-person singular simple present preoccupies, present participle preoccupying, simple past and past participle preoccupied)

(transitive) To distract; to occupy or draw attention elsewhere.

(transitive) To occupy or take possession of beforehand.

Source: Wiktionary


Pre*oc"cu*py, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Preoccupied (-pid); p. pr. & vb. n. Preoccupying.] Etym: [Cf. F. préoccuper. See Preoccupate, Occupy.]

1. To take possession of before another; as, to preoccupy a country not before held.

2. To prepossess; to engage, occupy, or engross the attention of, beforehand; hence, to prejudice. I Think it more respectful to the reader to leave something to reflections than to preoccupy his judgment. Arbuthnot.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

6 October 2024

DATELESS

(adjective) of such great duration as to preclude the possibility of being assigned a date; “dateless customs”


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Coffee Trivia

The average annual yield from one coffee tree is the equivalent of 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of roasted coffee. It takes about 4,000 hand-picked green coffee beans to make a pound of coffee.

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