Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of engrossing the possession or control of goods for sale; specifically, in old English law, the buying or contracting for any merchandise or provisions coming in the way to market, or before market-hours, or dissuading persons from bringing their goods or provisions to that market, or persuading them to enhance the price there: it was formerly a punishable offense.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of forestall.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of preventing something by anticipating and disposing of it effectively

Etymologies

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Examples

  • AFAIK, some states have such a system set up for pools of lawyers to defend indigents and/or capital cases (where the state has an interest in forestalling “ineffective counsel” appeals and wants to ensure that suitably qualified lawyers are onboard).

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Liz Cheney 2010

  • The Academy succeeded in forestalling labor unrest for five years, but when the studio executives used the occasion of Roosevelt's bank holiday in 1933 to cut screenwriters 'salaries (though not their own), the writers rebelled.

    Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood 2007

  • These local magistrates cum merchants therefore had a vested interest in forestalling the equation between plebeian female respectability and the private sphere.

    Gutenber-e Help Page 2005

  • When the powers at Vienna, in 1815, were rearranging the map of Europe they had joined Belgium with Holland as the kingdom of the Netherlands, with the idea of forestalling any further advance of France in that quarter.

    Ten Englishmen of the Nineteenth Century Joy, James Richard, 1863- 1902

  • It was thought wrong for anyone to purchase goods outside of the regular market ( "forestalling") or to purchase them in larger quantities than necessary ( "engrossing").

    Early European History Hutton Webster

  • 'Prevent,' now used in the sense of 'hinder,' seems in this line to have something of its older meaning, viz., to anticipate (in which case 'forestalling' would be proleptic).

    Milton's Comus John Milton 1641

  • Such moves, he said, could further provoke Russia at a time when the U.S. needs help from Moscow on other more pressing matters such as forestalling the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

    - Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community 2008

  • Such moves, he said, could further provoke Russia at a time when the United States needs help from Moscow on other more pressing matters such as forestalling the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

    News on www.kyivpost.com 2008

  • Such moves, he said, could further provoke Russia at a time when the U.S. needs help from Moscow on other more pressing matters such as forestalling the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

    - Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community 2008

  • Romantic indecision often annoys me, especially when the fulcrum of the triangle is merely forestalling a difficult but inevitable choice.

    20 « January « 2009 « The Manga Curmudgeon 2009

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