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Glite Dictionary
⏳ To prevent early 🏃 To take first 🃏 A blocking bid 🃏 To bid high early
to preempt

to preempt

9.0
Make a high bid in bridge to stop opponents from bidding
  • verb
  • /priˈɛmpt/
  • Jargon
translation icon : hacer una oferta preventiva
  • The player preempted with a high bid.

Examples

  • To throw off the other players, he plans to preempt their bidding with a bold move.

  • In the final round of the tournament, she decided to preempt her opponents by making a high bid early.

  • During last night's game, he preempted at the three-level to keep his rivals out of the auction.

  • It can be risky to preempt on a weak hand, but sometimes it pays off.

  • She decided to preempt with a three-diamond bid, hoping to disrupt the opponents' communication.

  • She preempted the opponents with a strong bid.

  • Before the opponents could react, she quickly chose to preempt their strategy with a strong bid.

Antonyms

to wait
∞ 1.0

To stay in one place or delay action until something happens

to allow
∞ 1.0

To let something happen or let someone do something

Surface Forms

preempt infinitive
preempted past
preempted past participle
preempting present participle
preempts third person singular

Morphology

preempt = pre + empt

This specialized verb sense (in bridge) still shows the prefix 'pre-' meaning 'before', but the root 'empt' is not a standalone English word, so learners can only partially infer the meaning.

Etymology

Preempt comes from Latin pre- 'before' and emere 'to buy', so to preempt in bridge is to 'buy' the auction space by bidding early and high to interfere with the opponents. That's why to preempt is to make a move that keeps others out of the bidding.