preoccupy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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“Acting involved pretending to be other people, whose own emotional states —such as she understood them — could preoccupy her for a time,” writes Cusk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
That, along with the Knicks players' return from San Antonio, will preoccupy this city with basketball for a few more days.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
“If the Iran situation lingers, it will preoccupy more and more of Congress’ time,” said Stifel Chief Washington Strategist Brian Gardner.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
What will preoccupy us in a century, fuel our ambitions and stir our fears, will probably be something we can’t even imagine today.
From Slate ● Dec. 9, 2025
But at the moment he had other things to preoccupy him.
From "1984" by George Orwell
But it’s the fighters’ first encounter, in 1936, that preoccupies “The Clash of Nations: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
This is a really critical piece that preoccupies me: what that does to our ability to organize and be in solidarity.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2023
It's an issue that preoccupies the German government too.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2022
Better to simply call her a writer: a person who must put into words that which preoccupies her; not for therapeutic ends, not for consolation, but with a probing concern about that which wounds us.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2022
This preoccupies her, it’s her own mystery that she hasn’t been able to solve.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Another earnings season is just around the corner, and more companies than usual have had upbeat expectations, while their executives are also a bit less preoccupied with inflation.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 13, 2026
In June, I became briefly preoccupied with the question of what kind of reader I intended to be that summer.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
"The defendant was so preoccupied with his own enrichment that he behaved in a shocking and disgraceful way," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
But like the current wellness movement, looksmaxxers are preoccupied with masculinity.
From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2026
She was so preoccupied with that thought, she didn’t notice the ledge until it was too late.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
For the company at the center of the boom, that’s an increasingly preoccupying question.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
With the use of personal data by AI models preoccupying authorities, particularly in Europe, Berners-Lee has made data protection his main cause in recent years, notably through the startup Inrupt.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
“What is preoccupying my brain, my everything, is just the fear of what’s going to happen next,” he said in an interview.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 21, 2023
Whatever is getting you down or preoccupying you, you can't be thinking about that when you're birding.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2023
Phineas had one of those minds which could record what is happening in the background and do nothing about it because something else was preoccupying him.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
Vocabulary lists containing preoccupy
