prevent

English

Alternative forms

• prævent (archaic)

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

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)

• IPA^(key): /pɹəˈvɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• 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.

   • (Can we date this quote by Book of Common Prayer and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

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

   • (Can we date this quote by Prior and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     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.
   • (Can we date this quote by Alexander Pope and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     their ready guilt preventing thy commands

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:hinder

Derived terms

• prevent defense
• preventative
• prevention
• preventive

Translations

to keep from happening

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

  Mandarin: 預防／预防 (zh) (yùfáng), 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: κωλύω (kōlúō)

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

to prevent — see forestall

References

• “prevent”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.