forerun
Americanverb (used with object)
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to run in front of; come before; precede.
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to be the precursor or harbinger of; prefigure.
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to anticipate or foretell.
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to forestall.
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to outrun or outstrip.
verb
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to serve as a herald for
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to go before; precede
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to prevent or forestall
Etymology
Origin of forerun
1505–15; fore- + run; probably not continuous with Middle English forerennen (intransitive) to run ahead, Old English fōryrnan
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It may, however, forerun a wartime wave of back-to-the-bed "escape" novels.
From Time Magazine Archive
Peace, untaught Groome, My heart's so great that Ide forerun my doome.
From A Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 4 by A. H. (Arthur Henry) Bullen
He only wondered what strange experience this blindfold journey was to forerun.
From The Story of the Foss River Ranch A Tale of the Northwest by Ridgwell Cullum
I saw evidences of war-paint and a recent war-dance that forerun an Indian attack.
From Vanguards of the Plains by Margaret Hill McCarter
The President's secret had been well kept, and for once rumor had not forerun execution.
From Abraham Lincoln, Volume II by John T. (John Torrey) Morse
Acoustics, we think, foreran somewhat the science of heat, as the science of heat preceded that of light.
From Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century Great Deeds of Men and Nations and the Progress of the World by John Clark Ridpath
Faintly on this other hand the voices of the ladies returning from the garden foreran them.
From Kincaid's Battery by Alonzo Kimball
At her side stood Ben, his lips twitching, and in his eyes that haunting fear which always foreran the father's struggles.
From The Seventh Noon by Edmund Frederick
He foreran the societies which insure against accident, and would guarantee whole bones for a year or a lifetime, according to the insurer's purse or fancy.
From Julia And Her Romeo: A Chronicle Of Castle Barfield From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray by David Christie Murray
He started forward to meet the intruder, but there was no footstep—no sound save the hurrying gusts that foreran the approaching tempest.
From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 by John Roby
Here’s a timeline of Steve Bannon’s White House months and the forerunning campaign role:
From The Guardian ● Aug. 18, 2017
A finger forerunning his eyes along the page.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
Our fleeting happiness here below is the forerunning proof of another and a perfect happiness, just as the earth, a fragment of the world, attests the universe.
From Seraphita by Honoré de Balzac
In this forerunning glow of the sunset, the pasture spread like emerald; for the dry touch of summer had not yet come near it.
From The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister
It was the fate that he expected; he, like so many, had a forerunning assurance of his end.
From John Redmond's Last Years by Stephen Lucius Gwynn
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