Forestall: meaning, example and synonyms
Forestallv. To prevent or hinder something by acting ahead of time.
Example
By releasing the data voluntarily, the agency hoped to forestall accusations of secrecy before the independent review began.
- Part of speech
- verb
- Synonyms
- prevent, preempt, avert, thwart
- Antonyms
- enable, permit, invite, facilitate
- Memory tip
- Fore (before) + stall: stall it before it starts.
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Check yourself: Forestall in context
Hoping to ______ a strike, the factory's managers offered a modest raise days before the union was scheduled to vote.
Answer: forestall. Acting early with a raise is meant to prevent the strike: forestall it. Replenish (refill), prefigure (foreshadow) and dwindle (shrink) don't describe heading off an event.
Regular pruning can ______ disease in fruit trees by improving airflow before fungal spores have a chance to settle.
Answer: forestall. Acting before spores settle prevents disease in advance: forestall. Entrench (fix firmly) and replenish (refill) would mean the opposite, and extricate (free) doesn't fit disease.