forestall
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
If one spouse gets sick, the other spouse can care for them with the help of the close family, and hopefully forestall any inpatient nursing needs.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 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
"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
He paused triumphantly—he was beginning to enjoy his role—and answered his own question to forestall the obvious answer on Powell’s tongue.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
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
There is a good chance that this sordid case will now end in a victory for Silva’s targets, or at least a dismissal that forestalls a ruinous, million-dollar judgment against them.
From Slate ● May 4, 2023
The agreement comes after talks began several weeks ago, and forestalls a May 31 deadline for workers to strike.
From Reuters ● May 11, 2022
Yet many physicians have the mistaken belief that a longer course of antibiotics forestalls resistant strains.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 27, 2021
Therefore the brute beasts cannot have freedom of Judgment; for in them the Appetite always forestalls the Judgment.
From Dante. An essay. To which is added a translation of De Monarchia. by Church, R. W. (Richard William)
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
So this was largely a case of harm forestalled rather than harm halted: implementation is easier in such cases, as no ‘making good’ is required.
From Salon ● May 28, 2025
The fuel’s expensive production process has forestalled any mass adoption of the fuel source.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 16, 2022
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
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
Unlike those teens, Zeder would have been able to delay puberty at its onset, forestalling those changes that might cause him dysphoria.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2023
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.
