The phrase "an effort to forestall" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing an action taken to prevent something from happening or to delay an event.
Example: "The government made an effort to forestall the economic crisis by implementing new policies."
Alternatives: "a measure to prevent" or "an attempt to avert".
A wedding is, in almost every way, an effort to forestall improvisation.
Mercer helps subsidize Robinson's various projects, which include an effort to forestall aging.
NYSE's talk of a dividend sweetener is an effort to forestall such a vote, and it has the advantage.
Iraq suffered several setbacks last week in what looked to be an effort to forestall a U.S. military offensive.
The conservators cleaned portions of the walls and applied adhesives to flaking paint, in an effort to forestall pictorial losses.
The move was widely viewed as an effort to forestall a costly bonus war, like the one that occurred last year.
That request was an obvious effort to forestall a compromise verdict.
As part of an ongoing effort to forestall the vote, a delegation of American diplomats traveled to the region this week, offering promises of renewed peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
But on Tuesday, the union, in an apparent effort to forestall any charges, sent the N.L.R.B. a letter saying that OUR Walmart "has no intent to have Wal-Mart recognize or bargain with it as the representative of Wal-Mart employees".
Following the lead of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the central banks of England and Japan and others, the monetary authorities of South Korea and New Zealand lowered their benchmark short-term interest rates yesterday, joining in a worldwide effort to forestall recession and reassure financial markets after the terror attacks in the United States last week.
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani traveled to Washington yesterday to meet Attorney General Janet Reno and federal prosecutors from Brooklyn in a last-ditch effort to forestall a civil rights lawsuit accusing the city of failing to discipline brutal police officers effectively.
