0 present participle of pre-empt
1 to do or say something before someone so that you make their words or actions unnecessary or not effective:
This necessarily required making some compromises and pre-empting opposition.
This strategy has been successful so far in pre-empting demands for increased autonomy or citizenship rights.
It may be prompted when it is irrelevant or ineffective, and so does no good while perhaps pre-empting a less easily prompted response that would actually have worked.
It was at this level that the jobber was particularly effective in managing the workers' discontents, in pre-empting strikes, or if they occurred, in breaking them.
When a monarchical authoritarian regime opens political space for social mobilization by instigating a political opening, the regime may be either pre-empting or responding to opposition demands.
That can mean a dramatic increase in the running costs of major schools and a pre-empting of education expenditure.
I cannot see how my noble friend can interpret this in any way as pre-empting parliamentary scrutiny.
The accusation is pre-empting; that is what we are accused of.
