PREOCCUPY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Preoccupy

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verb

Preoccupy v. t. (past & past part. preoccupied; pres. part. preoccupying)

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

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."

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Etymology of 'Preoccupy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Preoccupy" Quotes from Famous Books

... explain that his tutor had last year relinquished his post, that his father was advanced in years and afflicted with disease, and had multifarious public duties to preoccupy his mind, so that he had as yet had no time to make arrangements for another tutor, and that all he did was no more than to keep up his old tasks; that as regards study, it was likewise necessary to have the company of one or two intimate friends, as then only, by ...

— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... precedes going to sleep. The entire organism is then in a passive state, and more permanently receptive of the imprint of volition than at any other period of the twenty-four hours. If regularly at that moment the man says clearly and imperiously to himself, "I will not allow my business to preoccupy me at home; I will not allow my business to preoccupy me at home; I will not allow my business to preoccupy me at home," he will be astonished at the results; which results, by the way, are reached by subconscious and therefore unperceived channels whose ...

— The Plain Man and His Wife • Arnold Bennett

Words linked to "Preoccupy" : assume, prepossess, arrogate, ghost, obsess, seize