preventing

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).
   • I brush my teeth regularly to prevent tooth decay.

   Synonyms:

   throttle, anticipate, avert

2. (archaic, intransitive) To take preventative measures.
   • I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent!1897 October 16, Henry James, What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC
3. (obsolete, transitive) To come before; to precede.
   • We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC
4. (obsolete, transitive) To outdo, surpass.
   • 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.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC
5. (obsolete, transitive) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
   • their ready guilt preventing thy commandsc. 1699 – 1703, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius His Thebais”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC