pre-empt
- n a high bid that is intended to prevent the opposing players from bidding
- So we will have to act to pre-empt it this time, in Iraq and elsewhere, or it will be too late to resist it at all.
- There is growing speculation in the military that Bush will try to pre-empt the Petraeus testimony by announcing a gradual drawdown from 20 to 15 combat brigades later this summer.
- He ambushed lawmakers last month with the early public unveiling of his 2010 budget proposal, which had been drafted in secret to pre-empt resistance from the defense contractors in .