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Glite Dictionary
🛒 To buy up goods ⛔ To prevent early
to forstall

to forstall

9.9
To buy many goods to cause a shortage and make prices rise
  • verb
  • /fɔrˈstɔl/
  • Archaic
translation icon : acaparar
  • By secretly buying up the stock, he hoped to forstall his competitors and control the prices.

Examples

  • Authorities introduced new laws to prevent companies from trying to forstall essential medical supplies.

  • The merchants attempted to forstall the market by purchasing all available wheat.

  • They decided to forstall the price increase by buying all the available stock.

  • Investors often forstall essential supplies to maximize profits.

  • The company decided to forstall competitors by buying up all the available gasoline before the holiday rush.

  • To avoid losing profits, the grocery store owner forstalled the market by purchasing large quantities of canned goods.

  • When there was news of a potential grain shortage, many farmers began to forstall supply by buying up the remaining stock.

Synonyms

to corner the market
vsto forstall
9 7.2

To control most of the supply of a product so you can set its price and keep competitors out

buys up goods to create shortages and drive prices up

How Controlling

to monopolize
  • US
22 6.7
to forstall
  • Archaic
9.9
to buy up
46 4.1
to hoard
45 4.8

Surface Forms

forstall infinitive
forstalled past
forstalled past participle
forstalling present participle
forstalls third person singular

Morphology

forstall = stall (semi-transparent) = fore + stall

The components 'fore-' (before) + 'stall' are identifiable, but the specialised commercial sense 'buy up goods to create a shortage' is a narrower historical/market-specific meaning not obvious from the parts alone.

Etymology

Forstall comes from old parts for- meaning 'before' and stall meaning 'to stop' or 'delay'. So to forstall the market by buying goods is to 'stop others by acting before them', which lets you control prices.