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What is "preoccupied"

Crossword clues for preoccupied

preoccupied
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
preoccupied
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
so
▪ However, the government has not been so preoccupied with accountability procedures as appeared to be the case in the early 1980s.
▪ This was easier because everyone was so preoccupied with other matters.
too
▪ As the audience are too preoccupied to buy any drinks, the barman and five barmaids dance on the bar throughout.
▪ Modigliani did not gossip, he was too preoccupied and always discreet about his love affairs.
▪ Fenn was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice.
▪ All but a couple of the bidders were too preoccupied to notice the latecomers.
▪ Both antagonists, however, were by now either too weak politically or too preoccupied to resume serious hostilities for the moment.
▪ Tavett was too preoccupied with his fear that Wickham believed him to be the murderer to form any judgments.
▪ We are too preoccupied with our own thoughts to listen for understanding.
▪ Had she been too preoccupied with butlers, with introductions, with orchestration, with champagne?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Alison had entered the room, but he was too preoccupied to notice.
▪ He was far too preoccupied with his own marital difficulties to give any thought to his friend's problems.
▪ I admit I'm preoccupied and snappy at the moment -- I'm sorry.
▪ Most Russians are preoccupied with matters close to home, their economic conditions in particular.
▪ Parents are often too busy, tired, or preoccupied to give their children the time and attention they need.
▪ Prajapat glanced up with a preoccupied smile, then went back to the map.
▪ She seemed preoccupied and kept glancing toward the window.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As the audience are too preoccupied to buy any drinks, the barman and five barmaids dance on the bar throughout.
▪ Both antagonists, however, were by now either too weak politically or too preoccupied to resume serious hostilities for the moment.
▪ Coleridge is more preoccupied by his own terrifying visions.
▪ Fenella was seated next to Inchbad, who patted her hand and said she was a pretty little thing, but seemed preoccupied.
▪ Her mind was whirling, preoccupied with her own thoughts.
▪ She took her leave and went in search of Stephen, preoccupied by her thoughts.
▪ Tavett was too preoccupied with his fear that Wickham believed him to be the murderer to form any judgments.
▪ They are quarrelsome, politically unstable and poor; some are preoccupied with fighting.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Preoccupied

Preoccupy \Pre*oc"cu*py\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Preoccupied (-p[=i]d); p. pr. & vb. n. Preoccupying.] [Cf. F. pr['e]occuper. See Preoccupate, Occupy.]

  1. To take possession of before another; as, to preoccupy a country not before held.

  2. To prepossess; to engage, occupy, or engross the attention of, beforehand; hence, to prejudice.

    I Think it more respectful to the reader to leave something to reflections than to preoccupy his judgment.
    --Arbuthnot.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
preoccupied

"absorbed in thought," 1823, past participle adjective from preoccupy (v.). Earlier it meant "occupied in advance."

Wiktionary
preoccupied

  1. concerned with something else; distracted; giving one's attention elsewhere. v

  2. (en-past of: preoccupy)

Related phrases:
WordNet
preoccupied

  1. adj. deeply absorbed in thought; "as distant and bemused as a professor listening to the prattling of his freshman class"; "lost in thought"; "a preoccupied frown" [syn: bemused, deep in thought(p), lost(p)]

  2. having or showing excessive or compulsive concern with something; "became more and more haunted by the stupid riddle"; "was absolutely obsessed with the girl"; "got no help from his wife who was preoccupied with the children"; "he was taken up in worry for the old woman" [syn: haunted, obsessed, taken up(p)]

preoccupy

  1. v. engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively; "His work preoccupies him"; "The matter preoccupies her completley--she cannot think of anything else"

  2. occupy or take possession of beforehand or before another or appropriate for use in advance; "the army preoccupied the hills"

  3. [also: preoccupied]

preoccupied

See preoccupy

Usage examples of "preoccupied".

Mandarin, and only had enough Spanish to follow soccer broadcasts when the Anglophone nets were preoccupied with baseball or hockey, but he thought he could get by long enough to land a job.

Instead, Eli Strone was deeply preoccupied at a pulsed-laser bacterial sorter, a processing sieve that separated out desirable species from the unwanted ones.

Vivian was probably sorry as well, for she had a slightly confused and preoccupied look--a look from which, even in the midst of his chagrin, Bernard extracted some entertainment.

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he almost walked past Sophy Bisset, who hailed him enthusiastically.

Both Digby and I were preoccupied and did not converse much, yet there was a kind of harmony in our silence, and I had felt the faintest inkling of a distaste for Britten Street and a recognition that honourable behaviour does impress one and convince one of its validity.

Climbing into a low-growing bush, Baal Burra would become preoccupied, innocently absorbed in an inspection of the young shoots and tender leaves which it seemed to caress.

Though Livia and Manion Butler had lived separate lives for many years, each preoccupied with their own passions, the two of them had shared an invisible bond.

Only the multipartite creature, evidently known as a Sturr, seemed more or less preoccupied with the meal before it, but that may have been either because he or she was utterly nonhumanoid, or because approximately half of the creature was seated and eating while the balance of its body parts had crawled over to the buffet table to obtain more food and drink.

Had he not been so preoccupied, the sound of Pili Parang using the VHF radio might have struck him as odd.

She knew he was preoccupied with the upcoming Playoffs, so she had given him a wide berth.

Now the soul of politeness, she glanced at Poteen, who seemed strangely preoccupied.

With the memory of past feuds and hatreds in his mind, and predisposed against any Vaufontaine, his greeting was courteously disdainful, his manner preoccupied.

As suggested by Maslow, these procrastinators may be addicted to people or preoccupied with meeting their more basic emotional needs, e.

But Schizzy and the other women employees kept themselves untouchable, even those few girls who, unlike Schizzy, did not walk about befogged in an aura of preoccupied frigidity.

Roads and forests were equally undependable as the mind maintaining the area was preoccupied with other things.