'pre-emption' definitions:

The judicial principle asserting the supremacy of federal over state legislation on the same subject [syn: preemption, pre-emption]

The right of a government to seize or appropriate something (as property) [syn: preemption, pre-emption]

The right to purchase something in advance of others [syn: preemption, pre-emption]

A prior appropriation of something; "the preemption of bandwidth by commercial interests" [syn: preemption, pre- emption]