DictionaryAI

prevent

verb
pri-VENT/pɹɪˈvɛnt/

Formsprevents, preventing, prevented

5 meanings of prevent

Practice

  1. 1
    keep from happeningverbtransitive
    To stop a particular event from happening, or to stop a particular person or thing from doing something.

    Regular maintenance prevents costly breakdowns later on.

    The new policy is designed to prevent fraud across all departments.

    Usageprevent someone from doing something (not incorrect: prevent them to go); from is sometimes dropped.

    Similarstop, avert, avoid, deter, forestall

    Oppositeallow, permit, cause, encourage

  2. 2
    take precautionsverbarchaicintransitive
    To take measures in advance; to act so that trouble is avoided before it arises.
    I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent!
    1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew
    Note

    The objectless use is now archaic: the verb stands alone, meaning roughly "take precautions." Henry James still closes a sentence on it in What Maisie Knew (1897): "while I'm here to prevent!" Modern readers expect an object after the verb, so in present-day prose this reads as a deliberate period touch. Ordinary writing would say "here to prevent it" or "here to stop it."

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Prevent has an intransitive sense meaning to take preventative measures. en.wiktionary.org
    • Henry James wrote What Maisie Knew, first published in 1897. en.wikipedia.org
    • The quoted words end a sentence in the novel; the character speaking is Mrs. Wix. gutenberg.org
  3. 3
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To be beforehand with someone or something; to anticipate and act before another can.
    their ready guilt preventing thy commands
    c. 1699, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius His Thebais”
    Note

    This is the sense closest to the Middle English word itself, which meant "anticipate." Unlike the plain "come before" sense, it involves getting ahead of something expected: you act before another person acts or asks. In Pope's First Book of Statius His Thebais, "ready guilt" is "preventing thy commands": the deed runs ahead of the order before it is even given. Today the sense is obsolete, and modern English would simply say anticipate.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Middle English preventen meant anticipate, matching this historical sense. en.wiktionary.org
    • It means acting in anticipation; rivalry is not required. Pope's example concerns anticipating commands. en.wiktionary.org
    • Pope's The First Book of Statius His Thebais contains the quoted wording. gutenberg.org
    • Preventing in this passage means anticipating the commands. gutenberg.org

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To come before something in time; to precede or go ahead of it.
    We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.
    1549, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers
    We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
    1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
    Note

    Here the Latin "come before" behind the everyday verb survives at its most literal. When the King James Bible of 1611 says the living "shall not prevent them which are asleep," it means they will not go ahead of them, not that they will hinder them. Cranmer's 1549 prayer that grace may "prevent and follow us" pairs going before with coming after.

  2. 5
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To surpass or outdo another, exceeding them in skill, merit, or degree.
    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.
    1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
    Note

    Spenser uses it for outstripping. In Book IV of The Faerie Queene (1596) a knight charges "like shaft out of a bow preventing speed," moving faster than speed itself. The idea is getting ahead in a race, stretched to beating a rival in any contest. In older verse this obsolete sense is easy to mistake for hindering. Read it as "outrunning" or "outdoing" and the line makes sense.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Spenser uses prevent to mean outstrip or surpass. en.wiktionary.org
    • The poem first appeared in 1590; Book IV, which contains this quotation, first appeared in 1596. Specify Book IV to retain the date. en.wikipedia.org
    • The quotation describes a knight charging, with prevent meaning surpass; the wording modernizes preuenting. gutenberg.org
    • The explanation connects going ahead with the obsolete sense of surpassing or outdoing. en.wiktionary.org
    • The sense illustrated is obsolete and means outdoing rather than hindering. en.wiktionary.org

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Origin

Latin praeveniō ("I anticipate") is made of prae ("before") and veniō ("I come"); its perfect passive participle praeventus gave Middle English preventen ("anticipate").