PREOCCUPY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Preoccupy

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/priˈɑkjəpˌaɪ/ Listen

Preoccupy

verb

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

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"

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

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Etymology of 'Preoccupy'

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"Preoccupy" Quotes from Famous Books

... charm for all of us in that which was still in the making when its maker died, or in that which he laid aside because he was tired of it, or didn't see his way to the end of it, or wanted to go on to something else. Mr. Pickwick and the Ancient Mariner are valued friends of ours, but they do not preoccupy us like Edwin Drood or Kubla Khan. Had that revolving chair at Gad's Hill become empty but a few weeks later than it actually did, or had Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the act of setting down his dream about the Eastern potentate ...

— And Even Now - Essays • Max Beerbohm

... absolutely touch and require our attention from morning till night, we would find what a small slender thread life was; but we string upon it a thousand imaginary beads that never come, and burden ourselves with cares and flurries that if we had trusted more, would never have needed to preoccupy our attention. Wise indeed was the testimony of the dear old saint who said, in review of her past life, "I have had a great many troubles in my life, especially those that ...

— Days of Heaven Upon Earth • Rev. A. B. Simpson

... people—unintelligent, superstitious, uncivilized! What a dismal drain they will be on the race's strength! Not merely will they lessen its ultimate chance of achievement; their hardships will always distress and preoccupy minds,—fine, generous minds,—that might have done great things if free: that might have done something constructive at least, for their era, instead of being burned out attacking ...

— This Simian World • Clarence Day Jr.

Words linked to "Preoccupy" : preoccupancy, take over, ghost, prepossess, preoccupation, seize, haunt, arrogate, obsess, assume, command, control, usurp