Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The state of being preoccupied; absorption of the attention or intellect.
- n. Something that preoccupies or engrosses the mind: Money was their chief preoccupation.
- n. Occupation of a place in advance; preoccupancy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of preoccupying, or seizing beforehand; possession gained in advance.
- n. The act of anticipating; anticipation.
- n. The state of being preoccupied; prior engrossment or absorption.
Wiktionary
- n. The state of being preoccupied or an idea that preoccupies the mind; enthrallment.
- n. The act of occupying something before someone else.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of preoccupying, or taking possession of beforehand; the state of being preoccupied; prepossession.
- n. rare Anticipation of objections.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an idea that preoccupies the mind and holds the attention
- n. the mental state of being preoccupied by something
- n. the act of taking occupancy before someone else does
Etymologies
- pre- + occupation (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The intelligentsia are as confused as before, and their main preoccupation is finding culprits abroad, such as the Elders of Zion and the Western imperialists, for the misery of their society.”
“But what Councils do not deal with, and therefore neglect, is also of great significance: thus Vatican II was deafeningly silent about what was to become the main preoccupation of the pontificate of John Paul II: evangelisation.”
“Their major preoccupation is to see the end of 'Lost' before their neighbour, who is still watching the first series, so that they can feel superior in their technological prowess.”
“Halperin begins his defense of historicism by admitting "my major preoccupation is with the accurate decipherment of historical documents”
The Uses and Abuses of Historicism: Halperin and Shelley on the Otherness of Ancient Greek Sexuality
“Dance and movement have been my main preoccupation lately, pushing out knitting and fiber arts somewhat.”
“Of course, my current preoccupation is a crime novel.”
“However, my main preoccupation today will be whether West Ham can beat Wolves and go through to the 5th round of the FA Cup.”
“I did some research as a medical student, my main preoccupation was with becoming a physician who could serve in the armed forces.”
“Mention of the Second World War brings me back to Christie's main preoccupation which was to get the fine art business back on its feet.”
“But Canada cannot live in a world in which all of our time and all of our preoccupation is with just a handful of countries, as important as they may be to us.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘preoccupation’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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National Library Agenda Summit
nla2006, summit, agenda, library, ala, diversity, education, learning, continuous, scan, environmental, plan and 646 more...
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333
semiotics, behemothic, resplendent, allegiant, visceral, ratiocination, promontory, amaranthine, pharmacopoeia, dichotomy, haematomesis, uxorios and 157 more...
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