How to Use preoccupied in a Sentence

preoccupied

adjective
  • Remember that kids may be too preoccupied at times to sit down and eat.
    — ​wendy Wisner, Parents, 13 Mar. 2025
  • Training keeps a dog’s mind busy and less preoccupied with outside noise.
    — Cathy M. Rosenthal, San Antonio Express-News, 4 Feb. 2021
  • Paul's mandate is to find and sign real artists and not be so preoccupied with numbers.
    — Jewel Wicker, Billboard, 26 Aug. 2019
  • Sometimes someone’s sullen or preoccupied or way too wound up.
    — Risa Polansky Shiman, Sun Sentinel, 6 May 2026
  • Large business units may be too preoccupied with the present to focus on the future.
    — Carolyn Said, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2025
  • The signs seem to suggest that voters are more preoccupied with the former.
    — Aaron Blake, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Nov. 2022
  • Cole Sprouse is once again hitting back at fans who are a little too preoccupied with his love life.
    — Glamour, 3 Sep. 2021
  • To many in the city, Tubbs was indeed too preoccupied with non-city matters.
    — Rafael Perez, Oc Register, 23 Apr. 2026
  • But to be fair, Jesus is preoccupied, and Mary doesn’t know how to love him.
    — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 3 May 2026
  • Elsa is far too preoccupied trying to deal with the conflict in her own life to obsess about princes.
    — Carol Dyhouse, Time, 19 Apr. 2021
  • The veteran critics on and off campus, like the rest of us, are a bit preoccupied.
    — Osita Nwanevu, Slate Magazine, 12 Mar. 2017
  • His Davis, with short dark hair and a beard and a glint of dread in his eye, is edgy and preoccupied, maybe even a bit nervous.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 11 Feb. 2026
  • Most cities have such resources, and your friends may be too preoccupied to do the necessary research.
    — New York Times, 9 Nov. 2021
  • The whole idea of world order is something that these other countries think a lot about, are quite preoccupied with.
    — Eli Stokols, Los Angeles Times, 22 Aug. 2019
  • Female bees, looking for a home, are usually too preoccupied with their search to sting you.
    — Lila Westreich, The Conversation, 1 May 2020
  • Leadership is so preoccupied on just trying to stay alive.
    — David Moin, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
  • But each is too preoccupied with internal problems to take up the matter.
    — John F. Clark, Fortune, 27 June 2023
  • The fathers, many of whom worked corporate jobs, were too preoccupied to help raise their children.
    — New York Times, 15 Dec. 2021
  • WristbandGuy, for his part, was an amiable if preoccupied host.
    — Daniel Kolitz, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
  • The funny thing is, Rick and the group don’t seem too preoccupied with finding their comrade.
    — vanityfair.com, 24 Feb. 2017
  • The preoccupied officer appeared to be doing the math in his head.
    — Seth Lipsky, WSJ, 7 Sep. 2020
  • But, mainly, July was spent preoccupied with one thing and one thing only.
    — Michelle Ruiz, Vogue, 10 Dec. 2018
  • People are too preoccupied with day-to-day life and are not well enough educated to do anything about it.
    — Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 10 Nov. 2024
  • Volkov’s version has a more serious tone and is more preoccupied with the right morals and behavior.
    — Christin Bohnke, JSTOR Daily, 5 Mar. 2025
  • Some declared the home side world champions, but most in the media were more preoccupied with moral outrage.
    — SI.com, 9 Feb. 2018
  • In any case, the rapid spread of the memes was a clear sign of how preoccupied young people were with the airstrike and the looming question of what would come next.
    — New York Times, 5 Jan. 2020
  • Other descendants warn about the dangers of living in the past or are too preoccupied with hardships of the present.
    — Reuters, CNN, 27 Oct. 2020
  • Still, Kevin had always found the surgeon to be caring, if a little preoccupied.
    — Ava Kofman, ProPublica, 26 June 2023
  • If anything, the upper crust have more time to be artistic — less preoccupied with getting a job and making a living.
    — Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2026
  • And Beltran seems very preoccupied with making sure that Amelia knows she’s not taken.
    — Laura Bradley, Vulture, 25 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'preoccupied.' 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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