pre-emptive

/pri:'emptiv/

Thân thiện

A company makes a pre-emptive bid to acquire a smaller competitor.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Designed to prevent something from happening by taking action first: A "pre-emptive" action is one taken to stop an anticipated, often negative, event before it can occur.
   • Having the power or right to act before others: In specific contexts, it can refer to a right or privilege to acquire something before others are given the opportunity.

Usage and Examples

• General Use (Preventing an Event):
  • The country launched a pre-emptive strike against the military base to neutralize the imminent threat.
  • The company made a pre-emptive offer to buy the smaller competitor before it could be acquired by someone else.
• Specific Contexts (Rights or Privileges):
  • The shareholder had a pre-emptive right to purchase new stock issues before they were offered to the public.

Advanced Usage

• "Pre-emptive action": An action taken to prevent a future problem.
  • The government's pre-emptive action stabilized the financial market before the crisis could spread.
• "Pre-emptive right": A legal or contractual right to have the first opportunity to purchase something.
  • The lease agreement included a pre-emptive right for the tenant to buy the property.

Variants and Related Words

• Preempt (verb): To take action to prevent something from happening or to acquire something before others can.
  • The new policy was designed to preempt any legal challenges.
• Preemption (noun): The act or right of preempting.
  • The federal law has preemption over state laws in this matter.

Synonyms

• Preventive: Intended to stop something undesirable from happening.
• Anticipatory: Done in anticipation of a future event.
• Proactive: Creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.

Related Phrases

• Pre-emptive bid (in card games like bridge): A high bid made early in the auction to disrupt the opponents' communication and prevent them from finding their optimal contract.
  • Her pre-emptive bid of four hearts made it difficult for the opponents to bid their spade suit.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. designed or having the power to deter or prevent an anticipated situation or occurrence
   • a preemptive business offer

Từ đồng nghĩa

• preemptive