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
It cannot forerun the limitations of its day, nor anticipate the conquests and common possessions of the future.
From Spenser by R. W. (Richard William) Church
The President's secret had been well kept, and for once rumor had not forerun execution.
From Abraham Lincoln, Volume II by John T. (John Torrey) Morse
Yet this I have ever noted when thou wast thus, It still forerun some strange event: my Sister Died when thou wast thus last: hark hark, ho, What mournfull noise is this comes creeping forward?
From The Mad Lover The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (3 of 10) by Francis Beaumont
Even so, it is not quick enough, I fear, to forerun the whims of goddesses.
From Jurgen A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell
In him, though the soul's forces were not feeble, the senses foreran them,--compelled them, sometimes conquered them.
From Mercy Philbrick's Choice by Helen Hunt Jackson
When the wind backed around into the northeast, as it had on this occasion, it foreran a gale of more than usual power and of more than twenty-four hours' duration.
From Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper by James A. Cooper
At her side stood Ben, his lips twitching, and in his eyes that haunting fear which always foreran the father's struggles.
From The Seventh Noon by Edmund Frederick
That the telegram foreran a more explicit statement there could be no doubt.
From David Malcolm by Nelson Lloyd
In that he foreran our Lord, his deed is beyond our reach: but in three other concernments, in no wise.
From The White Rose of Langley A Story of the Olden Time by Emily Sarah Holt
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
Even to the poorest laborer's family comes now something like peace and rest forerunning the intermission of the night.
From Bits about Home Matters by Helen Hunt Jackson
It was the fate that he expected; he, like so many, had a forerunning assurance of his end.
From John Redmond's Last Years by Stephen Lucius Gwynn
The forerunning qualm of seasickness was as nothing to this.
From The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey
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.
