PREOCCUPIED • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Preoccupied

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/priˈɑkjəpˌaɪd/ Listen

Preoccupied

adjective

1.

Deeply absorbed in thought. Synonyms: bemused, deep in thought, lost. "Lost in thought" , "A preoccupied frown"

2.

Having or showing excessive or compulsive concern with something. Synonyms: haunted, obsessed, taken up. "Was absolutely obsessed with the girl" , "Got no help from his wife who was preoccupied with the children" , "He was taken up in worry for the old woman"

Preoccupy

verb

(past & past part. preoccupied; pres. part. preoccupying)

1.

Engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively. "The matter preoccupies her completely--she cannot think of anything else"

2.

Occupy or take possession of beforehand or before another or appropriate for use in advance.

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Etymology of 'Preoccupied'

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Preoccupied" Quotes from Famous Books

... place where his diagram ought to have been visible on the screen—and so it was again so soon as the darkness was restored. I remember him then as a most ordinary, slightly nervous-looking dark man, with an air of being preoccupied with something else, and doing what he was doing just then under an ...

— The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth • H.G. Wells

... land that God had promised to give him, Abram found it already inhabited by great and warlike nations—not by one nation, but by a number of nations. What could he do, a solitary man, in that land? Not only was his faith tested by finding the land preoccupied by other strong and hostile nations, but he had not been there a great while before a great famine came upon him. No doubt a great conflict was going on in his breast, and ...

— Men of the Bible • Dwight Moody

... Completely preoccupied again, Matt went to a big switch and threw it. The dynamo hummed, raised its pitch to a high, almost intolerable keening note. The ring of pseudo-searchlights seemed in an ominous sort of way to spring into life. The impression must have been entirely imaginary; actually the projectors ...

— The Raid on the Termites • Paul Ernst

... from the table quickly in apparently a preoccupied manner, and the conversation was thus ...

— Aunt Hannah and Seth • James Otis

... mysteriously disappeared from her partners in the dance. Lady Lundie had mysteriously abandoned her guests. Blanche had not come back. Lady Lundie had returned with an artificial smile, and a preoccupied manner. She acknowledged that she was "not very well." The same excuse had been given to account for Blanche's absence—and, again (some time previously), to explain Miss Silvester's withdrawal from the croquet! A wit among the gentlemen ...

— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins

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