PREEMPTION

The act or right of purchasing before others. Specifically: The privilege or prerogative formerly enjoyed by the king of buying provisions for his household in preference to others. [Eng.] The right of an actual settler upon public lands (particularly those of the United States) to purchase a certain portion at a fixed price in preference to all other applicants. Abbott.

An act or process that preempts; a preventive or forestalling action; as: | The purchase of something before it is offered for sale to others. | An act or process that preempts; a preventive or forestalling action; as: | The purchase of public land by the occupant. | An act or process that preempts; a preventive or forestalling action; as: | The temporary interruption of a task without its cooperation and with the intention of resuming it at a later time. | An act or process that preempts; a preventive or forestalling action; as: | The supersession of a conflicting law from a lower jurisdiction by an overlapping law from a higher jurisdiction.

A township and census-designated place therein, in Mercer County, Illinois, United States.