The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.]
To take possession of before another; as, to preoccupy a country not before held.
-
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.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of preoccupy English)
Usage examples of "preoccupying".
They were constant, they were preoccupying: pictures in his mind and feelings that charged those pictures with sensations that ran over his skin and roused desires he had to seek privacy to deal with.
With the Grand Patriarch's pageant preoccupying everyone, Venport was sure they could bring the big vessel down to Norma Cenva's new laboratory complex without drawing any undue attention.
Long ago he had truly cared for her, but Zufa had always been scornful of him, preoccupying herself with other matters, expending all of her passion on the war effort and personal gratification, rather than on him.
Do you know what scientific problems were preoccupying Sherlock Holmes?
How to do this was still preoccupying me as I reached Argyll Street which is near Oxford Circus.
The stars are so many, each planet of theirs so vast and preoccupying, that no explorer has found a way back to the mother world.