prevent

English

Alternative forms

• prævent (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English preventen (“anticipate”), from Latin praeventus, perfect passive participle of praeveniō (“I anticipate”), from prae (“before”) + veniō (“I come”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈvɛnt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈvɛnt/
• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Hyphenation: pre‧vent

Verb

prevent (third-person singular simple present prevents, present participle preventing, simple past and past participle prevented)

1. (transitive) To stop (an outcome); to keep from (doing something). [from 16th c.]

   I brush my teeth regularly to prevent them from turning yellow.

   • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Scotland must now hope Georgia produce a huge upset and beat Argentina by at least eight points in Sunday's final Pool B match to prevent them failing to make the last eight for the first time in World Cup history.

2. (intransitive, now rare) To take preventative measures. [from 16th c.]
   • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:

     ‘I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent!’

3. (obsolete, transitive) To come before; to precede. [16th-18th c.]
   • Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 15

     We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

   • Book of Common Prayer

     We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.

   • Prior

     Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.

4. (obsolete, transitive) To outdo, surpass. [16th-17th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i:

     With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
   • Alexander Pope

     their ready guilt preventing thy commands

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:hinder

Derived terms

• preventative
• prevention
• preventive

Translations

to keep from happening

• Arabic: مَنَعَ‎ (ar) (manaʿa)
• Catalan: impedir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 預防 (zh), 预防 (zh) (yùfáng), 防止 (zh) (fángzhǐ)

• Czech: bránit (cs), zabránit (cs)
• Danish: forhindre (da)
• Dutch: verhinderen (nl)
• Esperanto: malhelpi (eo), malebligi
• Estonian: ennetama
• Finnish: estää (fi), ehkäistä (fi)
• French: empêcher (fr)
• Galician: impedir
• German: verhindern (de), vorbeugen (de)
• Greek: αποτρέπω (el) (apotrépo)

  Ancient Greek: κολύω (kolúō)

• Haitian Creole: anpeche
• Hungarian: megakadályoz (hu), meggátol (hu)
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} mencegah
• Irish: urghair (literary)
• Italian: impedire (it), prevenire (it)

• Japanese: 予防する (ja) (よぼうする, yobō suru)
• Korean: 막다 (ko) (makda), 방해하다 (ko) (banghaehada)
• Malay: mencegah
• Malayalam: തടയുക (ml) (taṭayuka)
• Manchu: ᡩᠣᡳᡤᠣᠮᡧᠣᠮᠪᡳ (doigomšombi)
• Maori: whakahōtaetae, whakakati
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: forebygge (no)

• Portuguese: impedir (pt), prevenir (pt)
• Russian: предотвраща́ть (ru) impf (predotvraščátʹ), предотврати́ть (ru) pf (predotvratítʹ), меша́ть (ru) impf (mešátʹ), помеша́ть (ru) pf (pomešátʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: спре́чити pf, спреча́вати impf

  Roman: spréčiti (sh) pf, sprečávati (sh) impf

• Spanish: impedir (es), prevenir (es)
• Swedish: förhindra (sv), förebygga (sv)
• Telugu: నివారించు (te) (nivāriñcu)
• Vietnamese: ngăn (vi), ngăn chặn (vi)
• Welsh: atal (cy), rhwystro (cy)
• Westrobothnian: hääfft

to prevent — see forestall