forebode
Americanverb (used with object)
-
forebodes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
foreboded,
past participle, past
-
foreboding
present participle
-
to foretell or predict; be an omen of; indicate beforehand; portend.
clouds that forebode a storm.
- Synonyms:
- augur, forecast, presage, foreshadow
-
to have a strong inner feeling or notion of (a future misfortune, evil, catastrophe, etc.); have a presentiment of.
verb (used without object)
-
forebodes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
foreboded,
past participle, past
-
foreboding
present participle
-
to prophesy.
-
to have a presentiment.
verb
-
to warn of or indicate (an event, result, etc) in advance
-
to have an intuition or premonition of (an event)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
forebodesimple
-
forebodessimple
-
have forebodedperfect
-
has forebodedperfect
-
am forebodingprogressive
-
are forebodingprogressive
-
is forebodingprogressive
-
have been forebodingperfect progressive
-
has been forebodingperfect progressive
Past
-
forebodedsimple
-
had forebodedperfect
-
was forebodingprogressive
-
were forebodingprogressive
-
had been forebodingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of forebode
Vocabulary lists containing forebode
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:
During the present year the Irish newspapers reported the discovery of the apparition of a black pig in the district of Kiltrustan… which caused much alarm, and was supposed to forebode some serious national disaster.
From Nature ● Dec. 17, 2018
Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not.
From Time Magazine Archive
The police, whenever my mother forebode, would indeed come, and many of the men of the yard would be caught napping, surrendering themselves with lamblike submission.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
The leading company rode off as swiftly as they could, for it was still deep dark, whatever change Wídfara might forebode.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
With this fact navigators are well acquainted; and therefore a fall in the sea-water thermometer may forebode that shallow water is at hand.
From A Treatise on Meteorological Instruments Explanatory of Their Scientific Principles, Method of Construction, and Practical Utility by Henry Negretti
It’s 1833 in Friel’s fictional small town, Ballybeg, where a sweet, putrid smell rising from the potato fields forebodes famine and an ingress of redcoats threatens to blight the local heritage.
From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2023
A Game 7 loss at home for the fourth season in a row — 2-1 to the Nashville Predators in the first round Wednesday — forebodes consequences potentially more severe than previous years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2016
‘You have chosen the Evening; but my love is given to the Morning. And my heart forebodes that soon it will pass away for ever.’
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
The opinion that a swarm of bees settling on a dead tree forebodes a death in the family also prevails in Derbyshire.
From Notes and Queries, Number 213, November 26, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Geneologists, etc. by George Bell
Let it not find thee in that perilous hour, Prescience forebodes thee, at some lady's ear Sighing unhallowed love.—Its malice then Harms not thy breast, another bears the stroke!
From The Legendary and Poetical Remains of John Roby author of 'Traditions of Lancashire', with a sketch of his literary life and character by John Roby
But it is foreboded that that will only be when we have both lost all that we now have.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
The sky was utterly dark, and the stillness of the heavy air foreboded storm.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Many of the men, too, had foreboded the misfortune; and the previous night, while lying in the church of St. Pecaque, had been disturbed by frequent groanings which kept them from sleeping.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Walter Thornbury
His friends warned him that these continual insults and depredations foreboded mischief, and that he ought not to submit to them.
From The Freedmen's Book by Lydia Maria Francis Child
I still hoped at that time that we should have the delight of seeing him once more: I foreboded dangers for him, but not those sad events which have beguiled my life of every joy.
From Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of Ludwig Tieck by Ludwig Tieck
He added that Anglesey fitted the brief: "It can be absolutely stunning but has a foreboding quality."
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
In Atlanta, her visionary cosmologies read as foreboding, otherworldly—paradise lost.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Then, with the foreboding intro and the tapping heel of a bedazzled platform pump, the delicious reveal of Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter singing “Sweet Transvestite” cemented that this experience would bond us for life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
But a 0.1-percent dip in food services sales could reflect that people are opting to drive less -- a foreboding sign for broader spending in the services sector.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
Instead, the moment I stepped through the doors, my skin crawled with an anxious foreboding.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
