bode
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to be an omen of; portend.
The news bodes evil days for him.
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Archaic. to announce beforehand; predict.
verb (used without object)
verb
verb
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to be an omen of (good or ill, esp of ill); portend; presage
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archaic (tr) to predict; foretell
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bode
before 1000; Middle English boden, Old English bodian to announce, foretell (cognate with Old Norse botha ), derivative of boda messenger, cognate with German Bote, Old Norse bothi
Explanation
The verb bode suggests forecasting. Something bodes well when the clues or signs imply a favorable outcome. But if something bodes ill, you’d better watch out! Something might bode good fortune, or it could bode disaster. The word, which can be traced back to the Old English bodian, "to announce, foretell," is also found in the adjective foreboding, which means "ominous, boding ill."
Vocabulary lists containing bode
Romeo and Juliet
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Othello
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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:
This should bode well for the Thai hospital operator as revenue from Middle East patients grew 21% on year in 1Q, compared with a 1% gain in overall revenue, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Campaign strategists love to tout a military record, a blue-collar résumé, small-business ownership, and a life of family and faith, in part because they suggest qualities that bode well for a political leader.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2026
Economists said the figures do not bode well for French growth this year, with some already expecting a further GDP slowdown in the current quarter.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
Those figures bode ill for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, whose organizers are also counting on a robust flow of foreign visitors.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
"Gravesend Dock. That doesn't bode well, does it?" said Belet.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
All of that boded badly for high-flying names like Sandisk and Micron, as some of 2026’s biggest winners became this selloff’s big losers.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
The images boded ill for Mountain High, but as the night wore on, the resort’s fate remained a mystery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2024
Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Amazon's ramp-up in seasonal hires boded well for consumer discretionary spending, to a point.
From Reuters ● Oct. 26, 2023
“The shift towards normality after the pandemic has overall boded well for global livability in 2023,” said Upasana Dutt, head of the livability index at EIU.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
So the Isle-Men of Low Torning had sent to Roke begging for a wizard to protect their folk from what boded over the western horizon, and the Archmage had judged their fear well founded.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
He also sees DSV’s faster-than-expected integration of DB Schenker as boding well for CargoWise, with the additional volumes supporting his expectation of a 2H skew to WiseTech’s results.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
You can go on and on with comparisons, but something big boding in favor of this season’s team is the likelihood of Daccord maintaining his numbers beyond the streak.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 12, 2024
A simplified prototype of the experiment that operates at room temperature is already remarkably sensitive, boding well for the final Archimedes apparatus's performance.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 29, 2023
A recent spike in mosquito-borne diseases — such as dengue fever and malaria — has underscored the fragility of the African country’s health system, boding ill for future challenges driven by climate change.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 9, 2023
A boding of ill we thought it, my father and I, for no tidings had we heard of Boromir since he went away, and no watcher on our borders had seen him pass.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
