Also 4–6 forstal(l(e, 6–9 forestal. [ME. f. OE. foresteall: see prec. sb. First recorded in the specific sense 2; cf. AF. forstaller, whence the agent-n. forstallour (13th c.).]
† 1. To lie in wait for, intercept, cut off (a person or animal). Obs.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), I. xvii. (1859), 18. He hath ben alwey my personell enemy, and greuously pursued in al that he couthe or myght ley for me in a wayte, and forstallyd in weyes, teldyng nettes, arrayng trappes and other engynes, for to take me and deceyue with.
1570. Levins, Manip., 13/18. To Forestall, intercipere.
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., I. (1677), 52. The Rain-Deer, which is seldom hunted at force or with Hounds, but onely drawn after with a Blood-hound, and forestall’d with Nets and Engines.
1741. Chambers, Cycl., Forestalling is particularly used in Crompton, for stopping a deer broken out of the forest, and preventing its return home again; or, a lying between him and the forest, in the way he is to return.
† b. To intercept and appropriate (a living, a revenue). Also with away. Obs.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxvii. (1887), 163. Not suffer them vnder the titles of learning, to supplant the learned, and forstaull away their liuinges.
1618. Bolton, Florus, III. xvii. (1636), 225. The Gentrie … forestalled the publick revenewes [L. interceptis vectigalibus], and excises, and robbed the common-weale in their own right.
2. To intercept (goods, etc.) before they reach the public markets; to buy (them) up privately with a view to enhance the price: in former days an indictable offence. Obs. exc. Hist.
[1353. Act 27 Edw. III., I. c. 5. Que nul Marchant Engleis nengrosse ne forstalle vins en Gascoigne.]
1467. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 374. That they forstalle no fysshe by the wey.
1567. Drant, Horace’s Ep. Numitius, Dj b.
| Thincke not that woords do virtue make, as trees do make a wood, | |
| Take ship betyme, leste sum forestal, and bye vp all this good. |
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier, Wks. (Grosart), XI. 283. First I alledge against the Grasier that he forestalleth pasturs and medow grounds, for the feeding of his cattell.
absol. 14[?]. Chalmerlain Ayr, i. (Sc. Stat., I.). All þe names of þe furth duelland forstallaris of þe forsaid burgh byand and selland forstalland.
1551. R. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop. (Arb.), 43–4. Suffer not these riche men to bie vpal, to ingrosse, and forstalle, and with their monopolie to kepe the market alone as please them.
[See also FORESTALLING vbl. sb.]
transf. and fig. 1727. Swift, Petition of Colliers, Wks. 1755, III. I. 129. It will be found contrary to the known Laws of the Kingdom, to Confine, Forestall, and Monopolize the Beams of the Sun.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, II. i. I am not my own property, my dear Lydia, has forestalled me.
b. To anticipate or prevent sales at (a fair, market) by buying up or selling goods beforehand or by dissuading persons from bringing in their goods. † To forestall the burgh: to make a profit out of the inhabitants by such practices (Sc. obs.).
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. IV. 42.
| He meynteneþ his Men · to Morþere myn owne, | |
| Forstalleþ my Feire · Fihteþ in my chepynges. |
1550. Lever, Serm. (Arb.), 84. So dyd Iosephe in Egipt, suffre no corne to be lost in the yeares of plenty, but stored it vp in barnes, to relieue the people with, in ye tyme of darth: Not as couitous carles do here in Englande forstall the markettes, and b[u]ye corne at all tymes, to begynne and encrease a dearth.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 148. Quha forestalles the said burgh, be buying and selling.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 158. The offence of forestalling the market is also an offence against public trade.
1849. G. P. R. James, The Woodman, v. ’Tis thus he always forestalls the market.
fig. 1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. vii. (1647), 121. King Philip thinking to forestall the market of honour, and take up all for himself, hasted presently to Ptolemais.
† 3. To beset, obstruct by armed force (a way or passage); to bar the entrance to (a house) by a force stationed before it. Obs.
1535. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 131. Gwent and others, to ye number of 8 or 9 persons at ye lest, stode at ye dore and forestalled ye houses wth swordes drawen, and thretned me.
1544. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 54 b. The tenant … encountreth him & forestalled him the way with force & armes.
1581. Lambarde, Eirenarcha, II. iv. (1588), 155. It seemeth to bee a forcible holding, if a disseisor of a house, or Land, shall forestal the way of the disseisee (with force and armes) so that hee dare not enter, or approach for feare of death.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VII. xxxvi. § 22. But the country inhabitants comming to the rescue, begirt them about with their hoast, and forestalled the passages of all supply of victuals; so that for want of food, the Danes were constrained to eate vp their horses, and vpon composition thence to depart.
4. Hence gen. To hinder, obstruct, or prevent by anticipation. Now rare; cf. 5.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., May, 272.
| Of mercye and fauour then I you pray, | |
| With your ayd to forstall my neere decay. |
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 109. Garlicke and wormewood shall forstall & correct them, nay altogether destroy and wast them, and that Hawk that is vied often vnto it shal neuer die of them.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 1022.
| Doubt not but God | |
| Hath wiselier arm’d his vengeful ire then so | |
| To be forestall’d. |
1675. Baxter, Cath. Theol., II. VIII. 146. You must not forestall the Truth by any of these false suppositions.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 160. This has frequently occasioned offenders to procure thier own friends to begin a suit, in order to forestall and prevent other actions.
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. iv. 443. This time a bargain had been made with the Nabob, that he should not forestall the wishes of his allies, by the precipitate conclusion of a peace.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., I. viii. 98. Information is given in the House of Commons, January 18, 1671, of endeavours to forestal a free election by papers, in the nature of warrants.
† b. To bar or deprive (a person) by previous action from, of, out of (a things). Obs.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 26/1. Purposing to assemble their powers againe, and to forestall the Romans from vittels, and so driue the matter off till winter.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Sept., 231.
| How, but with heede and watchfulnesse, | |
| Forstallen hem of their wilinesse? |
1611. Shaks., Cymb., III. v. 69.
| May | |
| This night fore-stall him of the comming day. |
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., I. 3. Will those secure his Majesty in his Throne, now he is actually King of England, who would have murthered him in his Cradle, ere he was Prince, to forestall him of the Crowne of England?
1660. Baker, Chron. (1674), 260. King James perceiving what their meaning was, thought it stood not with his honour to be fore-stalled out of his own Realm.
† 5. To pre-occupy, secure beforehand; also, to influence beforehand, prejudice. Obs.
1572. Buchanan, Detect. Mary, K ij. The mindis of the maist pairt of men weir … forestalls wyth rewardis.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy. (1810), III. 240. Suffered the fit places and harboroughs in the Isle which are but two, as farre as I can learne, to be forestalled and taken up by the Britons of Saint Malo and the Baskes of Saint John de Luz, by comming a day after the Fayre, as wee say.
1618. Bolton, Florus, Ep. Ded. (1636), Aij. Seeing the glory of a great Historian forestall’d by Livie.
1635. Sibbes, Soules Confl., xiii. § 3. 193. The Iewes in Ieremies time were fore-stalled with vaine imaginations against sound repentance.
1685. Boyle, Enq. Notion Nat., 3. I know, most men will be forestall’d with no mean prejudices against so venturous an Attempt; but I will not do Eleutherius the Injury, to measure Him by the prepossess’d generality of Men.
b. To pre-occupy the place of.
1877. C. Geikie, Christ, liv. (1879), 653. John and James had striven to hide their selfish and ambitious request, by coming to Jesus when He was alone, but the Ten, as was inevitable, soon heard of it, and were indignant in the extreme at such an unworthy attempt to forestal them in their Master’s favour.
6. To be beforehand with in action; to anticipate the action of, or simply, to anticipate; often with the additional sense of rendering ineffective, nugatory, or useless. (The chief current sense.)
c. 1585. Faire Em, I. 305.
| Man. What comes he too, to intercept my love? | |
| Then hie thee Manvile to forestall such foes. |
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 59. Well did you forestall my exception, quoth Eriphila, in terming it a seruile imitation.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, 43. And this he did to forestal any Tidings that might come to their Ears, of their deliverance.
a. 1683. Oldham, Poet. Wks. (1686), 18.
| Be swift and let your deeds forestal intent, | |
| Forestal ev’n wishes, ere they can take vent. |
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 363, 26 April, ¶ 20. In Milton the former Part of the Description does not forestal the latter.
1732. Waterland, Lett., Wks. 1823, X. 464. The principles I have here mentioned, may, I think, be pursued a great deal farther, in several useful corollaries, or other superstructure: but I shall not forestall your own thoughts.
1751. C. Labelye A Description of Westminster Bridge, 97. I will not forestall the Readers in the Pleasure of pronouncing the Result.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, viii. By St John! I will teach him to forestall my sport!
1860. Pusey, The Minor Prophets, 293. He [Micah] forestalls our Lord’s words, I am the good Shepherd, in his description of the Messiah.
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. ii. 91. Whatever they were going to say the ladies forestalled.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. ii. 50. He forestalled our own age in sending expeditions to explore the Northern Ocean, and in sendinng alms to the distant churches of India.
7. To think of, deal with, or introduce before the appropriate or due time; ‘to meet’ (misfortune, etc.) ‘halfway.’
1634. Milton, Comus, 362.
| What need a man forestall his date of grief, | |
| And run to meet what he would most avoid? |
1725. Pope, Odyss., XVIII. 183.
| His boding mind the future woe forestalls: | |
| In vain! by great Telemachus he falls, | |
| For Pallas seals his doom. |
1786–1805. H. Tooke, Purley (1840), 52. In order to explain it, I must forestall something of what I had to say concerning Conjunctions.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxiii. Dorothy, whose talents for forestalling evil, and communicating her views of it, are known to the reader.
1862. Goulburn, Pers. Relig., III. vi. (1873), 213. I cannot help so far forestalling this part of the subject, as to remark that the eagle, watching her young with keen eye, and sweeping beneath them with outstretched wing, as she sees them faint with exhaustion,—that our Lord walking on the waters, and stretching forth His hand to Peter when He saw him sinking,—that these similitudes give the exactly true idea of the relations between Christ and the tempted soul.
a. 1871. Grote, Eth. Fragm., iv. (1876), 109. There is no inclination on the part of others to forestall his wants.
† b. To place in the fore-front, bring forward.
1657. North’s Plutarch, Add. Lives, 42. To prove his [Charlemain’s] said Ambition, the said Writers do usually forestall two of his Actions.
