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preoccupation
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
preoccupation
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
central
▪ The national question as such still remains a central preoccupation for catholic nationalists.
▪ A sleepless alien might legitimately conclude that Earthlings' central preoccupation was this peculiar sort of inactivity.
▪ Paracelsus made intractable problems such as plague, syphilis, epilepsy, mental disorder, and learning disabilities central to his preoccupations.
chief
▪ He remained with Champneys until 1880, but it soon became clear that architecture would never be his chief preoccupation.
▪ Power was the chief preoccupation of Lenin and Stalin.
current
▪ Rather, they use patients' dreams to explore their current preoccupations.
▪ Schools and LEAs can be invited to tender projects and schemes which reflect their current preoccupations.
great
▪ Foreign affairs and nuclear policy were among his greatest preoccupations.
main
▪ That was even true of de Gaulle's other main preoccupation in these years - his ambitious and contentious foreign policy.
▪ When at home, Mr Berisha's main preoccupation is keeping his unruly party under control.
▪ Mr Reynolds' main preoccupation before his operation is with the stoma which will be formed during the procedure.
▪ Pay flexibility is a main preoccupation of Mr Montagu and Mr Brown in the planning stage.
▪ His main preoccupation becomes the demonstration of prowess through chasing off other males that attempt to gain access to his females.
▪ But his main preoccupation was with the unfinished Requiem, which had begun to prey on his mind.
major
▪ A major preoccupation of writers on organization has been the design of structures that will maximize efficiency.
▪ Since most of the male students were in their mid to late twenties, spouse hunting for them was a major preoccupation.
▪ Experimentation with colour and support has become a major preoccupation for him.
▪ Politics became the major preoccupation shared by all, rather than the concern of the ruling few.
▪ From chapter 8 onwards the theme of suffering is the major preoccupation of the book.
▪ Music has been his major preoccupation since childhood.
▪ In particular, aerodynamics are a major preoccupation.
▪ Throughout history the voluntary control of sexuality has been a major preoccupation of all religions, all cultures, all peoples.
■ VERB
become
▪ Consumer protection has, in recent years, become more of a preoccupation for governments and pressure groups.
▪ Politics became the major preoccupation shared by all, rather than the concern of the ruling few.
▪ Experimentation with colour and support has become a major preoccupation for him.
▪ Regular entertaining of company personnel, as well as occasional friends at weekends, threatened to become a major preoccupation for Laura.
reflect
▪ My only reservation with his classification of roles is that it reflects a Western preoccupation with task behaviours.
▪ The structure reflects traditional curricular preoccupations in special education.
▪ Schools and LEAs can be invited to tender projects and schemes which reflect their current preoccupations.
▪ The way in which we use language reflects the preoccupations of society and of individuals.
▪ Alberti's remarks on the harmonious assortment of colours in painting also reflect a preoccupation in Florence in the early fifteenth century.
▪ The intensity and bleakness of feeling conveyed in his work reflects a growing preoccupation with death.
▪ Moreover, it must be stressed, they reflected deep and genuine preoccupations of the age.
▪ This perhaps reflects the painter's preoccupation with nature seen through the eyes of a romantic.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Brad's main preoccupations were eating and sleeping.
▪ Georgina's preoccupation with her appearance takes up most of her time.
▪ Writing a will is not evidence of a morbid preoccupation with death.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A major preoccupation of writers on organization has been the design of structures that will maximize efficiency.
▪ And increasingly, the relatively brief preoccupation with methodology was seen to have run its course in economics.
▪ In any case, the argument was quite remote from Lenin's preoccupation with binding up the wounds of national estrangement.
▪ In her hands she carried two things that made Creusa, in all her preoccupation, start and look sharply at them.
▪ Linear preoccupation in the past remains a closed book to modern understanding.
▪ Music has been his major preoccupation since childhood.
▪ Politics became the major preoccupation shared by all, rather than the concern of the ruling few.
▪ Richards found a preoccupation amongst employers with the image of engineering.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Preoccupation

Preoccupation \Pre*oc`cu*pa"tion\, n. [L. praeoccupatio: cf. F. pr['e]occupation.]

  1. The act of preoccupying, or taking possession of beforehand; the state of being preoccupied; prepossession.

  2. Anticipation of objections. [R.]
    --South.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
preoccupation

1550s, "state of occupying beforehand," from Latin praeoccupationem (nominative praeoccupatio) "a seizing beforehand, anticipation," noun of action from past participle stem of praeoccupare, from prae- "before" (see pre-) + occupare "seize" (see occupy). Meaning "mental absorption" is from 1854. Earlier its secondary sense was "bias, prejudice" (c.1600).

Wiktionary
preoccupation

n. 1 The state of being preoccupied or an idea that preoccupies the mind; enthrallment. 2 The act of occupying something before someone else.

WordNet
preoccupation

  1. n. an idea that preoccupies the mind and holds the attention

  2. the mental state of being preoccupied by something [syn: preoccupancy, absorption, engrossment]

  3. the act of taking occupancy before someone else does [syn: preoccupancy]

Usage examples of "preoccupation".

Dora Sigerson Shorter is a balladist of stark power, and Miss Eva Gore-Booth a lyric poet whose natural lilt no preoccupation with mysticism can for more than a moment obscure.

They were by sheer preoccupation with that a peaceful people, more particularly after Wilkes, the house agent, driven by some obsolete dream of acquisition, had been drowned in the pool by the ruined gas-works for making inquiries into title and displaying a litigious turn of mind.

Bram had the distinct feeling that the solid parquetry of Nar, which was all that could be seen in any direction, would not have noticed even the most pelting of spring rains in the intensity of their preoccupation.

Imperial Sassan Academy of Geology, Planetology, and Geosciences CHAPTER 25 Sinklar walked into his palace bedroom and found Anatolia propped on the sleeping platform, preoccupation in her haggard eyes.

However, like all football fans, every last one of them had secret lofty ambitions for their club dreams of Premiership status, an FA Cup win even but realistic ambitions for the club were rather muted, and league and commercial survival were the current preoccupations.

Money was my dominating preoccupation, for a month after the events at Hougham I was three weeks in arrears of rent to Mrs Quaintance and was now penniless.

Extensive early childhood aggressive and sexualized vengeful preoccupations and sadistic acts either indulged in by reenactment of trauma or repetitive play not only develops their reasoning for murder but also rehearses the methods.

The proper tone possesses eight qualities: clarity, wonder, remoteness, sadness, eloquence, manliness, softness, and extensibility, but the tone will suffer under any of six conditions: bitter cold, extreme heat, strong wind, heavy storm, noisy thunder, or swirling snow, and the Wen-Wu lute must never be played under any of seven circumstances: mourning the dead, simultaneous playing with orchestra, preoccupation with worldly matters, uncleanliness of body, untidiness of costume, failure to burn incense in advance, and lack of an appreciative audience.

Something of the fatal languor and preoccupation that persist beneath all the violence of our stage--our national undramatic character--is perceptible in the narrative of our literature.

As the gravity of economic and political problems increased and the structural unsoundness of the world became more manifest, sexual preoccupations seem to have afforded a sort of refuge from the mental strain demanded by the struggle.

Alara stirred uncomfortably at the memory, and realized that in her preoccupation with her own memories, she had transformed back to her draconic form entirely.

Although Gaby found them interesting, Oncle Bernard turned up his nose at the art nouveau exhibits, declaring the curvilinear style with its preoccupation with squiggly representations of plant life too fussy for his taste.

Imperial Sassan Academy of Geology, Planetology, and Geosciences CHAPTER 25 Sinklar walked into his palace bedroom and found Anatolia propped on the sleeping platform, preoccupation in her haggard eyes.

Suffice it to say that especially in this field opinions must be read in the setting of the particular cases and as the product of preoccupation with their special facts.

Because of his preoccupation with the camera boat, Mick Stranahan allowed the last pinfish to stay on the line longer than he should have.