pre-empt
verbVerb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they pre-empt | |
| he / she / it pre-empts | |
| past simple pre-empted | |
| past participle pre-empted | |
| -ing form pre-empting |
- pre-empt something
to prevent something from happening by taking action to stop it 预先制止；防止；避免 - pre-empt somebody/something
to do or say something before somebody else does 抢在…之前做（或说）；先发制人 She was just about to apologize when he pre-empted her. 她正想道歉，他却抢先说了。 I do not want to pre-empt anything that the treasurer is going to say. 我不想抢先透露财政部长讲话的任何内容。 It would be wrong for me to pre-empt any future decision the committee might make. 我预先决定委员会将来可能做出的任何决定是错误的。
- pre-empt something (North American English)
to replace a planned programme on the television 临时取代（电视节目表上的节目）
Word Originmid 19th cent.: back-formation from pre-emption.