foreboding
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- forboding (much less commonly used)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English forbodyng, vorboding, equivalent to fore- + boding. Compare German Vorbote (“harbinger, omen”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (US) (file)
Noun[edit]
foreboding (plural forebodings)
- A sense of evil to come.
- Synonym: augury
- 1876 November, Henry James, Jr., chapter XIII, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 229:
- To me there is something sad in his life, and sometimes I have a sort of foreboding about him. I don't know why, but I fancy he will have some great trouble—perhaps an unhappy end.
- 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 41:
- A sense of foreboding, the like of which he had never known before, hung heavily on him.
- An evil omen.
Translations[edit]
sense of evil to come
|
evil omen
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Adjective[edit]
foreboding (comparative more foreboding, superlative most foreboding)
- Of ominous significance; serving as an ill omen; foretelling of harm or difficulty.
- 2018, “Blood on the Street”, performed by Soulfly:
- Blood on the street / Foreboding god complex / She never knew she was next
Verb[edit]
foreboding
- present participle and gerund of forebode