forebode

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Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɔːˈbəʊd/

Verb

forebode (forebodes, present participle foreboding; past and past participle foreboded)

1. To predict a future event; to hint at something that will happen (especially as a literary device).
   • , The Scarlet Letter

     There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart.

2. To be prescient of (some ill or misfortune); to have an inward conviction of, as of a calamity which is about to happen; to augur despondingly.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Two Voices

     His heart forebodes a mystery.

   • Sullen, desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and desolation, as the certain consequence of Caesar's death.

   • I have a sort of foreboding about him.

Synonyms

• (to portend or foretell) foretell, portend, predict

Translations

• Italian: presagire, vaticinare
• Russian: предвеща́ть
• Spanish: presagiar

Noun

forebode

1. (obsolete) prognostication; presage

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