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Preclude Uses Within and Outside Law
Preclude is often used in legal writing, where it usually refers to making something legally impossible. A new law may be passed by Congress to preclude any suits of a certain kind against a federal agency, for example. Some judges have found that the warnings on cigarette packs preclude any suits against the tobacco companies by lung-cancer sufferers. But there are plenty of nonlegal uses as well. Bad weather often precludes trips to the beach, and a lack of cash might preclude any beach vacation at all.
Synonyms
Examples of preclude in a Sentence
Louise Erdrich, Harper's, May 1993
… the institution [of slavery] in the United States was almost uniquely despotic, a closed system so powerful and totalitarian that organized insurrection was almost entirely precluded …
—William Styron, American Heritage, October 1992
But conceptual blinders can preclude observation, while most accurate generalities guarantee no proper resolution of specific anatomies, but can certainly guide perceptions along fruitful paths.
—Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life, 1989
… the same profusion of water that precluded overland travel in the summer months could, during the sledgehammer freeze of winter, be utilized as a natural highway—albeit a highway of ice.
—Jon Krakauer, Smithsonian, November 1987
She suffered an injury that precluded the possibility of an athletic career.
Bad weather precluded any further attempts to reach the summit.
Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 20 Nov. 2024
Even if Trump chose to run for president again in 2028, the term limit would preclude him from doing so.
—Hannah Parry, Newsweek, 6 Nov. 2024
Israel’s bombardment has uprooted 1 of every 5 people in Lebanon, emptying out much of Lebanon’s Shiite heartlands and destroying infrastructure — according to Lebanese leaders, U.N. officials and experts — that preclude residents’ timely return.
—Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2024
Damar Hamlin on the field, and since then, he’s gotten through each obstacle that would have precluded him from remaining a football player.
—Ryan Gaydos, Fox News, 24 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for preclude 
Dictionary Entries Near preclude
Cite this Entry
“Preclude.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/preclude. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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Legal Definition
preclude
transitive verb
Roach v. Teamsters Local Union No. 688, 595 F.2d 446 (1979)National Law Journal
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