forerun
Americanverb (used with object)
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to run in front of; come before; precede.
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to be the precursor or harbinger of; prefigure.
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to anticipate or foretell.
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to forestall.
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to outrun or outstrip.
verb
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to serve as a herald for
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to go before; precede
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to prevent or forestall
Etymology
Origin of forerun
1505–15; fore- + run; probably not continuous with Middle English forerennen (intransitive) to run ahead, Old English fōryrnan
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:
It may, however, forerun a wartime wave of back-to-the-bed "escape" novels.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the reflexes have a machine-like fatality, and conscious aim does not forerun their execution.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 4 "Bradford, William" to "Brequigny, Louis" by Various
O, this same thought did but forerun my need; And this same needy man must sell it me.
From Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
The cape jasmine wore hundreds of her own white favors, whose fragrance forerun the sight.
From Dr. Sevier by George Washington Cable
When the water's countenance Blurrs 'twixt glance and second glance; When our tattered smokes forerun.
From Songs from Books by Rudyard Kipling
Along the length of the old trail a marvelous fifty years have enriched a history whose epic days record the deeds of vanguards, who foreran and builded for the softer days of golden-wedding years.
From Vanguards of the Plains by Margaret Hill McCarter
Faintly on this other hand the voices of the ladies returning from the garden foreran them.
From Kincaid's Battery by Alonzo Kimball
That the telegram foreran a more explicit statement there could be no doubt.
From David Malcolm by Nelson Lloyd
As we proceed to recall, one by one, the salient chapters in the history of fire, and of the arts of depiction that foreran the camera, we shall perceive a truth of high significance.
From Little Masterpieces of Science: Invention and Discovery by George Iles
He started forward to meet the intruder, but there was no footstep—no sound save the hurrying gusts that foreran the approaching tempest.
From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 by John Roby
Here’s a timeline of Steve Bannon’s White House months and the forerunning campaign role:
From The Guardian ● Aug. 18, 2017
A finger forerunning his eyes along the page.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
Years out of mind the adherents of the leading political parties had mingled sociably before a non-partisan bulletin board in the courthouse, much as hostile camps fraternize in the truce forerunning peace.
From The Henchman by Mark Lee Luther
Not far off, on an island in the river, one can see people who are watching the fête and who think that they are present at one of the spectacles forerunning doomsday.
From Contemporary Russian Novelists by Serge Persky
These Acts the people are much rejoiced with, as being words forerunning their freedom, and they wait for their accomplishment that their joy may be full.
From The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer by Lewis Henry Berens
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.
