pretermit, v.
(priːtəˈmɪt)
Also præter-.
[ad. L. prætermittĕre to let pass, omit, overlook, f. præter, preter- + mittĕre to let go, send.]
1. trans. To leave out of a narrative; not to notice, mention, insert, or include; to omit.
| 1538 Starkey England ii. i. 166 Bycause I see here ys not the place now to dyspute..I wyl thys pretermytt and set apart. 1598 Stow Surv. xv. (1603) 123 The recitall whereof I pretermit for breuitie. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. (1839) 194 In all kinds of actions by the laws prætermitted, men have the liberty, of doing what their own reasons shall suggest, for the most profitable to themselves. 1745–6 Fielding True Patriot No. 13 The lad..had uttered many wicked things, which I pretermitted in my narrative. 1870 Gladstone Glean. IV. xliii. 228 Some points of conduct relating to the present war..we advisedly pretermit. |
† b. Theol. To pass over in electing to salvation. Cf. preterition 4. Obs.
| 1608 Willet Hexapla Exod. 812 God doth..of his owne will, as he electeth some so pretermit others. |
c. Rom. Law. To omit mention of (a descendant or natural heir) in a will. Cf. preterition 5.
| 1875 Poste Gaius ii. Comm. (ed. 2) 229 If a descendant of the testator was..pretermitted (praeteritus), i.e. not expressly either instituted successor or disinherited, possession was not granted to the devisees but to the pretermitted descendant. 1887 Tennant's Notary's Man. (ed. 5) 28 A father was bound to institute his children as his heirs, and could not disinherit them unless for very weighty reasons; for if a father pretermitted or passed them over in silence, the testament was void. |
2. To allow to pass without notice or regard; to overlook intentionally.
| 1542 Hen. VIII Declar. Scots A ij b, [Such] as we ought not with sufferaunce to pretermitte and passe ouer. 1571–2 Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 111 Quhilk..oppressioun gif it be pretermittit unpuneist. 1630 Donne Serm. xxv. (1640) 253 God pretermits many times errours in circumstances. 1821 Lamb Elia Ser. i. New Year's Eve, The birth of a New Year is of an interest too wide to be pretermitted by king or cobbler. |
3. To fail or forbear to do, use, or perform; to leave undone, neglect, omit.
| 1513 Douglas æneis vi. viii. 66 Na thyng, my deir freynd, did thow pretermyt; All that thow aucht to Deiphobus. 1528 Fox in Pocock Rec. Ref. I. 142 We..pretermitted nothing which might in any way conduce to the furtherance thereof. 1609 Bible (Douay) Wisd. x. 8 For pretermitting wisdom they..did slippe. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 197 Prince Maurice..pretermitted none of those things which had been used by Antiquity in the Art Military. a 1797 H. Walpole Mem. Geo. II (1822) I. 394 Was the necessary defence of her colonies to be pretermitted? 1836 Emerson Nature 47 A care..pretermitted in no single case. |
† b. Const. with infin. Obs.
| 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 160 So yet wil I not pretermit to declare out of other men such notes as I finde. 1665 Hooke Microgr. xiii. 85, I must not pretermit to hint. |
4. To neglect to avail oneself or make use of; to allow (time or opportunity) to pass unused or unimproved; to miss, lose. Now rare.
| 1538 Starkey England i. i. 25, I schal neuer pretermyt occasyon nor tyme of helpyng my cuntrey. 1609 E. Hoby Let. to Mr. T. H. Pref. 3 Throughly to possesse themselues of your fauour, they will pretermit neither time, nor meanes. 1651 Wittie tr. Primrose's Pop. Err. iv. ii. 205. 1840 J. P. Kennedy Quodlibet i. (1860) 27, I cannot pretermit the opportunity now afforded me to glance..at some striking events. |
5. To leave off for the time or for a time; to interrupt; erroneously, to leave off, cease.
| 1828 Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. (1863) 484 For her doth Farmer Brookes's mastiff..pretermit his incessant bark. 1878 Stevenson Edinburgh (1889) 36 Some customs..have been fortunately pretermitted. 1882 B. Harte Flip ii, The monotonous strokes of an axe were suddenly pretermitted. |
[¶The alleged sense ‘To render ineffectual’, ‘to frustrate’, in Cent. Dict. and Standard Dict., is an error due to misreading the passage cited.]
Hence preterˈmitting vbl. n. Also preterˈmitter, one who pretermits; preterˈmittently adv., erron. for intermittently.
| 1566 Drant Horace, Sat. ii. iii. Prol. F v b, A sluggarde, and pretermitter of duetifull occasions. 1579–80 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 259 But pretermitting of ony tyme. 1857 Miss Mulock Woman's Th. abt. Wom. 191 One half the parish resolutely declines ‘knowing’ the other half—sometimes pretermittently, sometimes permanently. |