preoccupancy

English

Etymology

From pre- +‎ occupancy. See preoccupate.

Noun

preoccupancy (usually uncountable, plural preoccupancies)

1. The act or right of taking possession before another.

   the preoccupancy of wild land

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “preoccupancy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)