Definition of "preventive" []

• Intended or used to prevent or hinder; acting as an obstacle: preventive measures. (adjective)
• Carried out to deter expected aggression by hostile forces. (adjective)
• Preventing or slowing the course of an illness or disease; prophylactic: preventive medicine; preventive health care. (adjective)
• Something that prevents; an obstacle. (noun)
• Something that prevents or slows the course of an illness or disease. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Edwards: "End 'preventive war' doctrine" yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Edwards: "End \'preventive war\' doctrine "'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary =' Article: John Edwards talks about ending Bush\'s" preventative war doctrine "and how to diplomatically engage with Iran. '"
• "Among other things, you declared here at the end what you called the preventive war doctrine of Bush/Cheney, and that should go where it belongs, the trash heap of history."
• "Until the RezLine account, I hadn't dealt with any of what I called preventive analyses in over a year, and suddenly, within weeks of each other, I had two, and from two different clients."