forebode
Americanverb (used with object)
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to foretell or predict; be an omen of; indicate beforehand; portend.
clouds that forebode a storm.
- Synonyms:
- augur, forecast, presage, foreshadow
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to have a strong inner feeling or notion of (a future misfortune, evil, catastrophe, etc.); have a presentiment of.
verb (used without object)
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to prophesy.
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to have a presentiment.
verb
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to warn of or indicate (an event, result, etc) in advance
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to have an intuition or premonition of (an event)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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forebodesimple
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forebodessimple
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have forebodedperfect
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has forebodedperfect
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am forebodingprogressive
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are forebodingprogressive
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is forebodingprogressive
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have been forebodingperfect progressive
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has been forebodingperfect progressive
Past
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forebodedsimple
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had forebodedperfect
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was forebodingprogressive
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were forebodingprogressive
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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
It seems to forebode not only the death of all real National aspirations, but the death of heart and soul.
From Beauties and Antiquities of Ireland by Russell, T. O.
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 constitutional convention of 1867-68 forebodes such a period, but when the Conservatives rouse themselves, from that time on the stage presents an internecine war between two very well matched enemies.
From The Reconstruction of Georgia Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1901 by Woolley, Edwin C.
Breakfast was over just as the rain began to fall with the tinkling whisper that forebodes determination.
From Plashers Mead A Novel by MacKenzie, Compton
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
He knew that it foreboded national convulsions and throes.
From Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits; A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians by Beardslee, Clark S.
She had already discovered in Mildred a firmness of character, resembling, if not equalling, her own; and she was rather afraid that this night's tranquillity foreboded a stormy morrow.
From Trevethlan: (Vol 2 of 3) A Cornish Story. by Watson, William Davy
And so the victim of imagination was delivered from the storm of persecution which he had foreboded would be renewed on the succeeding day.
From Wise Saws and Modern Instances, Volume II (of 2) by Cooper, Thomas
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
"I had that foreboding of what life was going to be, and I was getting pretty good on the guitar, so I sold my birthday presents to raise the money to go to Sweden."
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
Under the skylight of a 10-foot industrial ceiling is a cold, foreboding blacksmith’s forge — which, on an active day, would heat up to 2,500 degrees — surrounded by uncut, conical metal templates awaiting manipulation.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
Artisanal makers of goat cheeses can be found along undulating roads through greenery that dead end at the foreboding promontory of Cabo Espichel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
They brim with foreboding, bitter warnings, and hints at your importance in the universe.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
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.
