anticipate
Formsanticipates, anticipating, anticipated
- 1To know or expect that something will happen before it actually occurs.
Forecasters anticipate a sharp drop in temperatures by midweek.
The company anticipated rising demand and increased production early.
Note
Two shades share this sense. In Harold Bindloss's The Dust of Conflict (1907), a task is "more to Appleby's liking than the one he had anticipated." That is plain expectation. In anticipate the pleasures of a visit or the evils of life, it leans toward foretaste, living through something in the mind before it arrives. Neither carries the eagerness of the "look forward to" meaning.
- 2
- 3To act before someone else, especially in order to prevent their intended action.
The defenders anticipated the attackers and sealed the gate in time.
Skilled negotiators anticipate the other side and secure the deal first.
Note
The Latin parts tell the story: ante- "before" plus capere "to take". To anticipate someone is to take the move before they can. Macaulay's History of England shows it plainly: a man might have died by the executioner's hand "if indeed the executioner had not been anticipated by the populace." The crowd got there first. The object here is the rival, not the event, which is why preempt is its closest partner.
- 4
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with anticipate, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.
Origin
Borrowed from Latin anticipātus, the past participle of anticipō ("to anticipate"), formed from ante- ("before") and capiō ("to take").