preoccupy
verb (used with object)
to absorb or engross to the exclusion of other things.
had preoccupied
-
past perfectof preoccupy.past perfect
Used to express a completed action that took place before another specific past action occurred.
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.
There was relief, too, inside Fox, as it was spared more of what one employee called “a traumatic” episode that had preoccupied Fox’s rank and file.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 19, 2023
The idea of obtaining the Eichmann tapes had preoccupied him ever since, he said.
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2022
No one in my family had ever seen the video, but my Jewish roots had preoccupied me for years.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 2016
Egypt's flare-up had preoccupied Churchill on his homeward voyage; messages in cipher raced back & forth between the Queen Mary and Downing Street.
From Time Magazine Archive
While the molecular description of the gene clarified the mechanism of the transmission of heredity, it only deepened the puzzle that had preoccupied Thomas Morgan in the 1920s.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
