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What is "pre-emptive"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
pre-emptive
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
strike
▪ To prevent them being expressed, you stage a pre-emptive strike.
▪ But it never got that far because Kasser fired his pre-emptive strike.
▪ It was a pre-emptive strike against attempts to rewrite and water down his proposals in the months ahead.
▪ Apparently spooked, Univel cut its prices attempting what it called a pre-emptive strike.
▪ He had half expected a divine pre-emptive strike, a thunderbolt maybe, as he queued for the body and blood.
▪ This diminishes the chances of accidental war or pre-emptive strikes motivated by unfounded fears.
▪ Both his coups began with a ruthless pre-emptive strike from a position of strength.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The US says it is prepared to launch a pre-emptive strike with nuclear weapons if it is threatened.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Both are meant to decide on the basis of dependent reasons and their decisions are therefore pre-emptive.
▪ It still leaves the state Legislature with massive pre-emptive powers to override local decisions.
▪ Perhaps general anaesthesia should be combined with pre-emptive local and regional anaesthetic blocks more often.
▪ Right then, apparently, she put away any pre-emptive right to either Augusta or Thomas.
▪ That is what is known as a pre-emptive whinge.
▪ The defender launches his pre-emptive counter-attack a split second after the attacker prepares to strike.
▪ The elective resolution procedure does not apply to the pre-emptive rights since a special resolution procedure is available to change the articles.
▪ The procedure whereby the pre-emptive offer is to be communicated to the shareholders is laid down in section 90.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
pre-emptive

also preemptive, 1806, "pertaining to preemption;" from pre-emption + -ive. Specifically of an attack on an enemy who is plotting his own attack, 1958, a term from the Cold War. Related: Pre-emptively; preemptively.

Wiktionary
pre-emptive

a. (alternative spelling of preemptive English)

Usage examples of "pre-emptive".

Rising tensions between the Burnouts and the City dwellers have spurred development of weapons, formation of a militia, and pressure for a pre-emptive strike against the Burnouts from the more hawkish factions of the Mandala City government.

They'll start the arms race all over again or even pull a pre-emptive strike!

The United States, under President Eastwood, for Christ’s sake, was threatening a pre-emptive strike.

He thinks the work we did last night was a totally unjustified pre-emptive strike against a landing party of explorers from outer space, and that they only turned nasty in order to survive.

At the same time the British launched a pre-emptive strike against the French fleet in the Mediterrarean, based at Mers el-Kebir in Algeria.

Were the mexican to fail, the Federation would be obliged to bring greater forces to bear, making a massive pre-emptive strike which, in turn, could trigger a wider conflict.

They were, perhaps, most responsible for sowing the seeds that led to the fateful decision to institute the pre-emptive strike at Pearl Harbor.

He, it would be, in the event of a pre-emptive strike by the West, who would coordinate the radar and missile defences with the air defences.

That meant the Grand Council would have to order a pre-emptive strike, a very unpopular idea given the costs and resources.

The key to his self-exposure, and self-injury, is his journalistic outpouring on Chicago, which might almost be seen as a pre-emptive strike for the novel itself.