preoccupy, v.
(priːˈɒkjʊpaɪ)
[f. pre- A. 1 + occupy, after L. præoccupāre to seize beforehand. Cf. F. préoccuper (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. trans. To occupy or engage beforehand; to engross to the exclusion of other things; † to prepossess, to bias.
| 1567 Drant Horace, Epist. To Rdr., Amarouse Pamphlets haue so preoccupyed the eyes and eares of men. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. iii. 240 Say..that Your minds pre-occupy'd with what you rather must do, Then what you should, made you against the graine To voice him Consull. a 1735 Arbuthnot (J.), I think it more respectful to the reader to leave something to reflections, than preoccupy his judgment. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Voy. Eng. Wks. II. 13 The inconveniences..of the sea are not of any account to those whose minds are pre-occupied. |
2. To occupy or take possession of beforehand or before another; to appropriate for use in advance.
| 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 240 The places of these Ships which by them should haue been preoccupied, may be filled vp yearely with good fish. 1795 Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1799) 69 We found the posada pre-occupied by a Marquis and his retinue. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1872) III. i. vii. 44 A Mountain-wall of forty miles..which he should have preoccupied. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. x. (1875) 409 The name of Antoninus being preoccupied by Antoninus Pius. |
b. To occupy or fill (a thing) with (something) beforehand.
| 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 307 It has..been proposed..to fight off the poison of lyssa by preoccupying the ground with the poison of a viper. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 1240 If field with corn ye fail preoccupy, Darnel for wheat and thistle-beards for grain..Will grow apace. |
† 3. To possess by anticipation. Obs.
| 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 123 That they should in their life time preoccupie a lively feeling of an everlasting name. a 1677 Manton Exp. Lord's Pr. Matt. vi. 11 Wks. 1870 I. 166 We need not anticipate and pre-occupy the cares of the next day. |
† 4. To anticipate, forestall. Obs. rare.
| a 1677 [cf. 3]. 1785 Warton Milton's Poems 306 note, I have been preoccupied by Dr. Jortin in noting this parallel. |
† 5. To wear beforehand. b. pass. To be dressed in beforehand. Obs. rare.
| 1630 B. Jonson New Inn Argt. iv, The tailor's wife, who was wont to be pre-occupied in all his customers' best clothes. a 1637 ― Underwoods lx, Whose like I have known the tailor's wife put on..ere 'twere gone Home to the customer: his letchery Being the best clothes still to pre-occupy. |