Verb

(en verb)

To stop; to keep (from happening).

I brushed my teeth to prevent them from going yellow.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Tom Fordyce , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Scotland must now hope Georgia produce a huge upset and beat Argentina by at least eight points in Sunday's final Pool B match to prevent them failing to make the last eight for the first time in World Cup history.}}

* 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :

‘I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent !’

(obsolete) To come before; to precede.

* Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 15

We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

* Book of Common Prayer

We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.

* Prior

Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.

(obsolete) To outdo, surpass.

* 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i:

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.

(obsolete) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.

* Alexander Pope

their ready guilt preventing thy commands

Verb

(en verb)

To make less; to diminish; to reduce.

* Calamy

Charity shall lessen his punishment.

* Atterbury

St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=December 16 , author=Denis Campbell , title=Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients' , work=Guardian citation , page= , passage=Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers' often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.}}

To become less.