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Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

[See

The act or right of taking possession before another;

as, the

preoccupancy

of wild land

Noun.

[L. proeoccupans.]

The act of taking possession before another. The property of unoccupied land is vested by preoccupancy.

The right of taking possession before others. The first discoverer of unoccupied land has the preoccupancy of it, by the law of nature and nations.

preoccupancy ‎(usually uncountable, plural preoccupancies)

The act or right of taking possession before another.
the preoccupancy of wild land