However, the event created an atmosphere that virtually precluded a peaceful solution.

"Peter secured rights to people and places that would virtually preclude anybody else from making the movie," Birnbaum says.

And his indirect legacy, only partly visible, still cripples the Democrats: the budget deficits he ran up, which virtually preclude using the Government for social change.

That outcome, Dr. Nissen wrote, "virtually precludes the possibility of an overall benefit and suggest an unexpected mechanism for harm."

The low speed virtually precludes feasible service to farther suburbs, which are instead serviced by the RER.

Indeed, successful politics, especially during Ronald Reagan's Presidency and through most of George Bush's first two years, virtually precluded any other approach.

The one-on-one supervision of seriously ill prisoners virtually precludes escape.

These requirements and other restrictive statutory provisions virtually preclude a new party's qualifying for ballot position and no provision exists for independent candidates doing so.

I just wonder if the gym plays commercial radio stations that I never listen to at volumes that virtually preclude conversation.

The pianist dashed through the notes with an efficiency that virtually precluded tonal refinement and thoughtful turns of phrase.