forebode

English

Etymology

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

Alternative forms

• forbode (much less commonly used)

Verb

forebode (third-person singular simple present forebodes, present participle foreboding, simple past and past participle foreboded)

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

Translations

To predict a future event; to hint at something that will happen (especially as a literary device)

• Latin: praesāgīre
• Russian: предвещать (ru) (predveščatʹ)

• Swedish: förebåda

Noun

forebode

1. (obsolete) prognostication; presage

See also

• bode