- 1
If something preoccupies you, it moves into your mind and stays, so you think or worry about it a lot. The worry is the one doing the occupying: Money preoccupied her all winter. A little more formal than 'she could not stop thinking about it'. Long ago the Latin word meant to grab a place first, before someone else; English kept the picture of taking over early, but moved it into the head. You can preoccupy someone with a problem, though the pattern without with is very common: The news preoccupied him. There used to be another verb, preoccupate, from the same Latin place; that twin has died out, so you can leave it alone.
佔據心思；讓人滿腦子都是
組成pre- + occupy, after French préoccuper and Latin praeoccupare, 'to seize first'. English also once had preoccupate from the same place; that twin is now dead.
同家族的字
- occupythe base verb; Latin already had praeoccupare, 'seize first'
- preoccupiedthe usual describing form
- preoccupationthe noun: the thing that fills the mind
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
preoccupyverb/pɹɪˈɒkjupaɪ/
- 1
To distract; to draw attention elsewhere.
- The father tried to preoccupy the child with his keys.
- Dr. Beeching's obvious intent is that if Scottish—and similarly unprofitable English and Welsh—railways are to be maintained, it must be done by an unconcealed subsidy; he is determined that the railways shall no longer be preoccupied with—and derided for—immense deficits which include the burden of social services the State must openly underwrite, if it wants them.
- 2
To worry or concern (someone) so as to distract them.
- It always preoccupies me when he acts like this.
- 3
obsoleteTo occupy or take possession of beforehand.
- Terrified at this uproar, […] she ran for shelter into the place which was pre-occupied by the other lady […].
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。