forestall
verb (formal)- forestall something/somebody
to prevent something from happening or somebody from doing something by doing something first 防止；在（他人）之前行动；先发制人 Try to anticipate what your child will do and forestall problems. 尽量预见你的孩子会干什么，并预先阻止问题发生。 Any plans for a peaceful settlement were forestalled by the intervention of the army. 任何和平解决办法都因军队的介入而不能实施。
Extra ExamplesThey have tried to forestall criticism by keeping people fully informed of what they are doing. 他们试图通过让人们充分了解自己在做什么来阻止批评。 He opened his mouth to speak but Richard forestalled him. 他张开嘴想说话，但理查德抢先了一步。 Let me start with a couple of explanations to forestall any possible misunderstandings. 让我从几个解释开始，以防止任何可能的误解。
Oxford Collocations DictionaryForestall is used with these nouns as the object:- criticism
Word OriginOld English foresteall ‘an ambush’ (see fore- and stall). As a verb the earliest sense (Middle English) was ‘intercept and buy up goods before they reach the market, so as to raise the price’ (formerly an offence).