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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
: 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
11 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
21 6.7
to forstall
  • Archaic
9.9
to buy up
65 4.1
to hoard
38 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.