Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Intended or used to prevent or hinder; acting as an obstacle.
  • adjective Carried out to deter expected aggression by hostile forces.
  • adjective Preventing or slowing the course of an illness or disease; prophylactic.
  • noun Something that prevents; an obstacle.
  • noun Something that prevents or slows the course of an illness or disease.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Serving to prevent or hinder; guarding against or warding off something, as disease, injustice, loss, etc.
  • noun That which goes before; an anticipation.
  • noun That which prevents; that which constitutes an effectual check or insurmountable obstacle.
  • noun Specifically, something taken, used, or done beforehand to ward off disease.
  • noun Also preventative.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Going before; preceding.
  • adjective Tending to defeat or hinder; obviating; preventing the access of.
  • adjective [Eng] the duty performed by the armed police in guarding the coast against smuggling.
  • noun That which prevents, hinders, or obstructs; that which intercepts access; in medicine, something to prevent disease; a prophylactic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to.
  • adjective Carried out to deter military aggression.
  • adjective Slowing the development of an illness; prophylactic.
  • noun nonstandard A thing that prevents, hinders, or acts as an obstacle to.
  • noun nonstandard A thing that slows the development of an illness.
  • noun A contraceptive, especially a condom.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun remedy that prevents or slows the course of an illness or disease
  • adjective tending to prevent or hinder
  • adjective preventing or contributing to the prevention of disease
  • noun any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome
  • noun an agent or device intended to prevent conception

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Edwards: "End 'preventive war' doctrine" yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Edwards: "End \'preventive war\' doctrine "'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary =' Article: John Edwards talks about ending Bush\'s" preventative war doctrine "and how to diplomatically engage with Iran. '

    Edwards: "End 'preventive war' doctrine" 2007

  • Among other things, you declared here at the end what you called the preventive war doctrine of Bush/Cheney, and that should go where it belongs, the trash heap of history.

    CNN Transcript Nov 5, 2007 2007

  • Until the RezLine account, I hadn't dealt with any of what I called preventive analyses in over a year, and suddenly, within weeks of each other, I had two, and from two different clients.

    Flash ModesittJr_LE 2004

  • It is the first time the commission - the top U.N. human rights watchdog - has undertaken what it terms preventive diplomacy.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1996

  • Page 27 them in because of the distance they've travelled, and they have what they call preventive maintenance.

    Oral History Interview with John Thomas Outlaw, June 5, 1980. Interview H-0277. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) 1980

  • Many have continued to condemn the U.S. for what they call preventive war, or pre-emption, in the case of the Iraqi invasion in 2003, calling it illegal, the unilateral invasion of a sovereign state without justification.

    Front Page 2008

  • Women would not pay more than men and insurers would invest more in preventive care and care coordination.

    Wonk Room » Media Buys What The Health Insurance Industry Is Selling 2009

  • And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.

    Archive 2009-02-01 2009

  • And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.

    Obama: President's Address to Congress 2009

  • Their experiences and observations underscore why changing the health care system has proved so hard for presidents and policymakers: the complexity of the system, the pressure from chronic diseases, the shortfall in preventive care, the high costs, the competing demands — and the life-or-death stakes.

    '24 hours in the ER' shows challenges of health system 2009

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