foregone conclusion, a

Idioms  

1. An outcome regarded as inevitable, as in The victory was a foregone conclusion .

2. A conclusion formed in advance of argument or consideration, as in The jury was warned to consider all of the evidence and not base their decision on a foregone conclusion . This idiom probably was invented by Shakespeare ( Othello , 3:3) but scholars are not agreed as to his precise meaning. [c. 1600]

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Example Sentences

Bank boss Jerome Powell said last month that another cut at its December policy meeting was not a "foregone conclusion", a comment that has been echoed by a number of colleagues.

From Barron's • Nov. 18, 2025

In the end, “Breaking” feels like a foregone conclusion: a dismal portrait of a system — and a someone — already irreparably broken.

From Washington Post • Aug. 22, 2022

April 9, 2016, Santa Anita Oaks, Wrona: “ Songbird is close to home. The result was a foregone conclusion a long way from home. Songbird soaring to ever greater heights, she’s now an Oaks winner.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 17, 2016

One Book Called Ulysses, had to have been a foregone conclusion: a whole nation against “one book”? What could be more absurd?

From The New Yorker • Jun. 16, 2014

How was his death to be made, not a foregone conclusion, a mere conventional suicide, but the culminating moment of the tragedy?

From Play-Making A Manual of Craftsmanship by Archer, William