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
But there are signs of life emerging that could help forestall another historic low point.
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
This action was taken for three reasons: to protect American lives, to forestall further chaos, and to help restore democratic institutions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
You can’t know everything that will happen, but thinking through as much as you can will forestall a lot of bad outcomes.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026
In order to forestall outbreaks of retaliatory violence, we arranged a week-long series of mass rallies and demonstrations throughout the country.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The agreement comes after talks began several weeks ago, and forestalls a May 31 deadline for workers to strike.
From Reuters ● May 11, 2022
By pretending that his stock sales were mandated by his Twitter voters, Musk forestalls any speculation that they reflect his doubts about Tesla’s future or about its stratospheric stock market valuation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2021
Yet many physicians have the mistaken belief that a longer course of antibiotics forestalls resistant strains.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 27, 2021
If you feel like you must have an excuse that forestalls follow-up questions, you can always say the pregnancy has been hard on you and you’re just not up for a party.
From Slate ● Aug. 15, 2019
Fourth, Not to take up anything which of necessity forestalls a great quantity of time, but to have this sound ever ringing in our ears: "Time is flying—time that can never be retrieved."
From Studies in Literature by John Morley
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
Then she drove off to Portland, Ore., where she forestalled her father’s hope that she become a lawyer by eventually landing a job at alternative newspaper Willamette Week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2025
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 badger forestalled the explanation that was upon the young mouse’s lips.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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
Beshear’s refusal was enormously significant in forestalling a real step backward for the abolitionist movement.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 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.
