prevent
verbEtymology
From Middle English preventen (“anticipate”), from Latin praeventus, perfect passive participle of praeveniō (“to anticipate”), from prae (“before”) + veniō (“to come”).
- derived from praeventus
Definitions
To stop (an outcome)
To stop (an outcome); to keep from (doing something).
- I brush my teeth regularly to prevent tooth decay.
- Barriers have been put up to prevent more people (from) entering the stadium.
- Scotland must now hope Georgia produce a huge upset and beat Argentina by at least eight points in Sunday's final Pool B match to prevent them failing to make the last eight for the first time in World Cup history.
To take preventative measures.
- I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent!
To come before
To come before; to precede.
- We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.
- We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
- Then had I come, preventing Sheba's Queen, / To ſee the comelieſt of the Sons of Men; […]
›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer
To outdo, surpass.
- With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.
To be beforehand with
To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
- their ready guilt preventing thy commands
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at prevent. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at prevent. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
9 hops · closes at prevent
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA