How to Use preoccupy in a Sentence

preoccupy

verb

• The question of life after death has preoccupied many philosophers.
• The moves reflected the mood of a market that seems just as preoccupied with the virus as the rest of the world.
  — Alex Veiga, Fortune, 10 Mar. 2020
• Both artists were preoccupied with the abject side of the human body — the body as meat.
  — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 31 July 2019
• Putin is preoccupied with raising the birth rate at any cost, but there are few signs this can be changed.
  — Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 7 Mar. 2024
• The certainty of the Nazis’ threat is what preoccupied Churchill.
  — Dorothy Rabinowitz, WSJ, 20 July 2017
• But House members will still be preoccupied with the Biden probe.
  — Eric Cortellessa, TIME, 22 Feb. 2024
• If a staffer is preoccupied with fear, imagine all the work not being done.
  — Bonnie Low-Kramen, Quartz, 14 Mar. 2023
• The character—and the series—was preoccupied with the notion of true love.
  — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2023
• Tension over the bill preoccupied the Senate over two days last month.
  — David Ovalle, Anchorage Daily News, 6 Apr. 2023
• Melvin shook free from him later in the game, but Nelson was also preoccupied with the tight end.
  — Jeff McLane, Philly.com, 20 Mar. 2018
• Yet the stories that preoccupy Holes are hard for others to hear.
  — Washington Post, 27 Apr. 2022
• Early in the game, a teammate noticed Gostkowski was still preoccupied with the way the wind might affect the ball.
  — Kalyn Kahler, The MMQB, 12 July 2017
• But not the kind of exit that has preoccupied the country, and Europe, in so many seasons past.
  — Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2018
• The project that would preoccupy the Grimms for the remainder of their lives was the Deutsches Wörterbuch—the German dictionary.
  — Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024
• The two also sing, bringing fresh life into a film so preoccupied with the past.
  — Peter Debruge, Variety, 5 Sep. 2024
• The teenage carnie who has been preoccupied with his phone the phone finally looks up at his booth to discover that all the toys are gone.
  — Eliana Dockterman, Time, 21 June 2019
• What else could a good or viable life be preoccupied with?
  — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 June 2023
• The Cavs also screen on the baseline or high post off the ball and slide shooters behind them with the defense preoccupied with James.
  — J. Michael, Indianapolis Star, 14 Apr. 2018
• This mood is at odds with the behaviour of the family at the centre of the film who are preoccupied with building a dream life.
  — Hazlitt, 6 Mar. 2024
• The source of that light, lying on the other side of the visible world, is what preoccupies Murnane.
  — Ryu Spaeth, The New Republic, 4 May 2018
• During the two years before Hamas’s act of mass murder, the world of arms transfers had been preoccupied with weapons for Ukraine.
  — Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023
• In her last years, Jessie’s mother had been preoccupied with the plight of a series of endangered species.
  — Jessica Francis Kane, Harper's Magazine, 20 Nov. 2023
• The 10-year-old sports fan is the best sports fan by far, old enough to understand what’s going on but not yet jaded or preoccupied by the adult themes of the sports world.
  — Joe Rexrode, USA TODAY, 22 Dec. 2017
• The teenage boys are preoccupied with trumpet solos in music class, cute girls on the block, good fried chicken, and the Yankees.
  — Candice Frederick, Teen Vogue, 31 May 2019
• But the bear, just 160 yards away, was preoccupied with filling his belly.
  — Kevin Farron, Outdoor Life, 21 Sep. 2023
• But no one pretends to know what is in Putin’s mind or whether the new unrest in Kazakhstan will preoccupy him and make a move in Ukraine less likely.
  — Steven Erlanger, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Jan. 2022
• There were moments when Mullin sensed that the Rockets were preoccupied with dribbling into the lane with the goal of kicking the ball to the perimeter for 3-pointers.
  — Scott Cacciola, New York Times, 21 May 2018
• The narrator becomes preoccupied by the man who has left the message.
  — Cressida Leyshon, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2023
• The week of the election and likely for the next several weeks and months afterwards, employees will be preoccupied.
  — Janice Gassam Asare, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
• Once again, being trapped in a small world is a fate that preoccupies Sunja — Isak’s faith helped expand her world by introducing the notion of Heaven, and by taking her to Japan, too.
  — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024

Last Updated: 15 Dec 2024