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
- forestaller noun
- forestallment noun
- forestalment noun
- unforestalled adjective
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
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.
Officials struggled to answer questions about post-fire beach safety in part because of a lack of historical data on pollution levels, a pitfall researchers would like to forestall before another disaster arrives.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 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
Our family had long used the “eldest daughter” inheritance trope to forestall bad feelings.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 21, 2025
A democratic restoration cannot restore Athens’s squandered power or forestall its eventual surrender.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Sometimes our efforts seemed to forestall the next wave, sometimes hot.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
