How to Use forestall in a Sentence

forestall

verb
  • He forestalled critics by offering a defense of the project.
  • His comments were meant to forestall criticism of his proposal.
  • Negotiations failed to forestall the conflict.
  • This move might forestall that.
    — Eddie Pells, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2026
  • That threat is now forestalled, but for how long?
    — Ezra Klein, Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2026
  • Then again, Lamm is not one to forestall the future.
    — Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 19 May 2026
  • To fail to pick up a rock, when the other caveman picked up a rock, did not forestall the arms race.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 26 July 2023
  • That might help end the current pandemic and forestall the next one.
    — Jon Cohen, Science | AAAS, 15 Apr. 2021
  • The bank has tried before, and failed, to forestall such a reaction.
    — The Economist, 28 Oct. 2017
  • If fight-or-flight fails, the instinct to feign death kicks in as an attempt to forestall the danger.
    — Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 14 May 2024
  • Signing the waiver this week would forestall any move for another six months.
    — Elise Labott, CNN, 31 May 2017
  • And none of these moves can forestall an invasion, if Putin has already made up his mind.
    — Adam Entous, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022
  • Signing the waiver this week forestalls any move for another six months.
    — Dan Merica, CNN, 1 June 2017
  • To forestall a colossal sell-off, the Russian stock market was closed all of last week.
    — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 5 Mar. 2022
  • On the one hand, this forestalls a costlier decision — what to do with the trash when the landfill does fill up.
    — David Gutman, The Seattle Times, 26 Mar. 2019
  • Those efforts were defensive, aimed at forestalling oversight that might slow growth.
    — Paulo Carvão, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • The lobby service door was dead-knobbed and forestalled upstairs access.
    — James Ellroy, Vanities, 7 Oct. 2017
  • This is a very, very good film devoted to love, and to forestalling the cure permanently.
    — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 13 Dec. 2017
  • Perhaps the recent wobble has forestalled such a scenario.
    — Michael Santoli, CNBC, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Could see the futility of forestalling the harmful acts of an addict.
    — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Each show plays teasing games of will-they-or-won’t-they, finding endless last-minute ways to forestall kisses or worse.
    — Mike Hale, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2018
  • The concern was that rather than forestalling wider conflict, the strike could accelerate it.
    — Anna Mulrine Grobe, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Oct. 2024
  • What incentives are there to forestall the next episode of Syria's nightmare?
    — Tim Lister, CNN, 15 Apr. 2018
  • None of these deficiencies were enough to forestall the Navy's order, though.
    — Eric Tegler, Popular Mechanics, 28 Sep. 2020
  • The goal of Putin and his allies is to forestall popular protest among those tired of Putin’s long reign.
    — Regina Smyth, The Conversation, 16 Jan. 2020
  • There is a sense within the industry that the bill’s passage has forestalled a greater disaster.
    — Nathan Taylor Pemberton, The New Yorker, 2 Apr. 2020
  • At the same time, steady growth and hiring have forestalled a recession, which was widely predicted at the end of last year.
    — Christopher Rugaber, Fortune, 26 Oct. 2023
  • If the impact of something is uncertain but could be great, the argument goes, better forestall it just in case.
    — The Economist, 3 Mar. 2018
  • The federal government stepped in to rescue the other big banks and forestall a panic.
    — Frank Partnoy, The Atlantic, 10 June 2020
  • In other words, the dogs have made a difference, but their efforts cannot fully forestall the efforts of the black market.
    — Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian, 22 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'forestall.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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