What does "preoccupy" mean?

To distract; to draw attention elsewhere.

What is a synonym for "preoccupy"?

Common synonyms include: absorb, absorb the attention, accroach, adopt, appropriate, arrest.

Pronounced //pɹɪˈɒkjupaɪ//.

//pɹɪˈɒkjupaɪ// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Verb

1
To distract; to draw attention elsewhere. transitive
"The father tried to preoccupy the child with his keys."
2
engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively wordnet
3
To worry or concern (someone) so as to distract them. transitive
"It always preoccupies me when he acts like this."
4
occupy or take possession of beforehand or before another or appropriate for use in advance wordnet
5
To occupy or take possession of beforehand. obsolete, transitive
"Terrified at this uproar, […] she ran for shelter into the place which was pre-occupied by the other lady […]."

"The father tried to preoccupy the child with his keys."

From pre- + occupy, after Middle French preoccuper, and its source, Latin praeoccupo, praeoccupare. Doublet of preoccupate, now obsolete.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.