forestall
Americanverb (used with object)
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forestalls,
present (3rd person singular)
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forestalled,
past participle, past
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forestalling
present participle
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to prevent, hinder, or thwart by action in advance.
to forestall a riot by deploying police.
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to act beforehand with or get ahead of; anticipate.
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to buy up (goods) in advance in order to increase the price when resold.
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to prevent sales at (a fair, market, etc.) by buying up or diverting goods.
verb
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to delay, stop, or guard against beforehand
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to anticipate
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to prevent or hinder sales at (a market, etc) by buying up merchandise in advance, etc
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to buy up (merchandise) for profitable resale Compare corner
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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forestallsimple
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forestallssimple
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have forestalledperfect
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has forestalledperfect
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am forestallingprogressive
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are forestallingprogressive
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is forestallingprogressive
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have been forestallingperfect progressive
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has been forestallingperfect progressive
Past
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forestalledsimple
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had forestalledperfect
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was forestallingprogressive
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were forestallingprogressive
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had been forestallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of forestall
1350–1400; Middle English forstallen, verbal derivative of forstalle, Old English foresteall intervention (to defeat justice), waylaying. See fore-, stall 2
Explanation
It takes a bit of planning to forestall something, meaning stop it from happening. To forestall the effects of aging, exercise and take care of your health all your life. You can break the word forestall into parts to figure out its meaning. The prefix fore is one you've seen in words like forewarn, which means "to warn in advance." And you probably know that stall means "delay." So to forestall is to stall in advance, or put another way, to try to prevent or put off something you don't want to happen.
Vocabulary lists containing forestall
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
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The Pearl
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Nevertheless, some of them come together to try to forestall the installation of the solar array.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
To forestall this happening to younger women who are currently caregiving, she educates them about spousal IRAs, which allow nonworking spouses to save for retirement based on household income.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
Yet he assures us that he and his colleagues in Congress can forestall the inexorable march of technology to protect us from this fate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
"The threat of an H5N1 pandemic in humans is a genuine one, but we can hope to forestall it through better surveillance and a more nimble public-health response," Prof Menon told the BBC.
From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2025
Rumors circulated that Adams intended to step down from office in order to permit Jefferson, still his vice president, to succeed him, in an effort to forestall a constitutional crisis.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
The new contract may help him address its persistent quality problems, and certainly forestalls a machinists’ strike that was threatened to start Thursday, the deadline for union members to ratify the contract.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2024
The agreement comes after talks began several weeks ago, and forestalls a May 31 deadline for workers to strike.
From Reuters ● May 11, 2022
“It looks like either he senses something is coming or is hoping this move forestalls it,” said Wilde.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 26, 2022
Yet many physicians have the mistaken belief that a longer course of antibiotics forestalls resistant strains.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 27, 2021
Whoever forestalls me in winning your hand, Between you and him shall this mad moment stand— You shall think of me, though you think only to hate.
From Three Women by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
And a judge last week ordered the town to release video of the incident, a move the town forestalled by appealing Wednesday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Wednesday’s decision forestalled any such attack on double jeopardy.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2024
Until they realize that living together, as messy as it is likely to be, is far preferable to the existential fear of foreshortened, forestalled and anxiety-filled lives recycled forever.
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2024
The fuel’s expensive production process has forestalled any mass adoption of the fuel source.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 16, 2022
Cora closed her eyes, but a vision of the boy lying in bed, his head bandaged and the big man with the beard standing over him, forestalled her slumber.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
The rate of U.S. inflation could soon top 3% and push the Federal Reserve further away from its 2% target, forestalling additional reductions in interest rates.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 25, 2026
A study published last year in the journal Nature, for example, found that a personalized vaccine showed promise in forestalling recurrence of clear cell renal cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of kidney cancer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
Gill underplays Booth’s mental challenges, perhaps forestalling a diagnosis that could make it easier for us to distance ourselves from the character.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2025
Publication of these studies is far in the future, but in the meantime, the mathematical model offers a starting point for considering the feasibility and possible benefits of forestalling menopause in healthy women.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2024
The answer was accepted and amplified by Rav Gershenson, thereby forestalling Danny’s poised hand.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
