- before or in preference to other buyers, claimants, candidates, etc.:TriStar has preemptively purchased the movie rights to Williams’ new novel, the sequel to her debut bestseller.
- as a measure taken against something anticipated or feared; preventively:Knowing I’d be practicing piano for hours every day, I preemptively left polite notes for the upstairs and downstairs neighbors—with cookies attached—apologizing for the noise.
- (said of bidding) at an unnecessarily high level, as a defensive maneuver to make communication between one’s opponents more difficult:The more tricks you are certain of winning, given your hand, the higher the level at which you can bid preemptively.
