Prevent vs Forestall - What's the difference?
prevent | forestall |
To stop; to keep (from happening).
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 1
, author=Tom Fordyce
, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland
, work=BBC Sport
* 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :
(obsolete) To come before; to precede.
* Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 15
* Book of Common Prayer
* Prior
(obsolete) To outdo, surpass.
* 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i:
(obsolete) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
* Alexander Pope
(obsolete, or, historical) An ambush; plot; an interception; waylaying; rescue.
Something situated or placed in front.
To prevent, delay or hinder something by taking precautionary or anticipatory measures; to avert.
To preclude or bar from happening, render impossible.
(archaic) To purchase the complete supply of a good, particularly foodstuffs, in order to charge a monopoly price.
To anticipate, to act foreseeingly.
* Milton
* 1919 ,
To deprive (with of ).
* Shakespeare
To obstruct or stop up, as a road; to stop the passage of a highway; to intercept on the road, as goods on the way to market.
In transitive terms the difference between prevent and forestall
is that prevent is to stop; to keep (from happening) while forestall is to preclude or bar from happening, render impossible.As a noun forestall is
an ambush; plot; an interception; waylaying; rescue.prevent
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Verb
(en verb)- I brushed my teeth to prevent them from going yellow.
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- ‘I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent !’
- We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
- We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.
- Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.
- With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.
- their ready guilt preventing thy commands
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* preventative * prevention * preventiveforestall
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) forstal, from (etyl) .Alternative forms
* (l), (l), (l)Noun
(en noun)Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- Fred forestalled disaster by his prompt action.
- In French, an aspired h forestalls elision.
- What need a man forestall his date of grief, / And run to meet what he would most avoid?
- She insisted on doing her share of the offices needful to the sick. She arranged his bed so that it was possible to change the sheet without disturbing him. She washed him. She did not speak to him much, but she was quick to forestall his wants.
- All the better; may / This night forestall him of the coming day!