forebode
Americanverb (used with object)
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forebodes,
present (3rd person singular)
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foreboded,
past participle, past
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foreboding
present participle
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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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forebodes,
present (3rd person singular)
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foreboded,
past participle, past
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foreboding
present participle
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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 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
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
Ah! why did I invoke the nine To aid these humble toils of mine— That now forebode through every page The witling's sneer, the critic's rage.
From The Poems of Philip Freneau, Volume II (of III) by Philip Freneau
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
Every one forebodes disasters; but none think of reforming their lives in order to escape the threatened evil.
From Tales From the 'Phantasus', etc. of Ludwig Tieck by Ludwig Tieck
Here sits he shaping wings to fly; His heart forebodes a mystery: He names the name Eternity.
From Through Nature to God by John Fiske
The sky was utterly dark, and the stillness of the heavy air foreboded storm.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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
Those streaks on the horizon foreboded evil weather, as Luke had feared.
From The Corner House Girls on Palm Island by Thelma Gooch
The look and smell of the world foreboded a gale.
From Every Man for Himself by Norman Duncan
Ah! she foreboded but too well, that in this world she should not see him any more.
From Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3) Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter by Thomas Carlyle
Hodges reprises Orazio’s chiaroscuro — the interplay of light and shade — in the sculptural folds of the drapery to equally foreboding effect.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
“Lee” Xinyuan Li’s lighting heightens the sense of theatrical foreboding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 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
Our trusted sources in Iran spoke with opposition activists, human rights lawyers and independent journalists and found a mood of foreboding.
From BBC ● May 3, 2026
‘It looks like a tomb,’ muttered Frodo, and bent forwards with a curious sense of foreboding, to look more closely at it.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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