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
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
Indeed, the signs of his fall, or those that forerun it, are terrible, and amazing to behold.
From Works of John Bunyan — Volume 02 by John Bunyan
When the water's countenance Blurrs 'twixt glance and second glance; When our tattered smokes forerun.
From Songs from Books by Rudyard Kipling
He only wondered what strange experience this blindfold journey was to forerun.
From The Story of the Foss River Ranch A Tale of the Northwest by Ridgwell Cullum
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
He foreran the societies which insure against accident, and would guarantee whole bones for a year or a lifetime, according to the insurer's purse or fancy.
From Julia And Her Romeo: A Chronicle Of Castle Barfield From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray by David Christie Murray
Such, then, was this Western land, so long the home of the out-dweller who foreran civilization, and who sometimes took matters of the law into his own hands.
From The Story of the Outlaw A Study of the Western Desperado by Emerson Hough
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
Acoustics, we think, foreran somewhat the science of heat, as the science of heat preceded that of light.
From Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century Great Deeds of Men and Nations and the Progress of the World by John Clark Ridpath
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
We are living in the time when that greater restoration with all its events forerunning and connected with it are about to come to pass.
From Studies in Zechariah by Arno C. Gaebelein
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
I would lie thus for hours motionless, with lulled mind, until the breeze forerunning the dawn, or the quavering wail of the jackal, recalled the startled thought to the prison bonds of self.
From Apologia Diffidentis by O. M. (Ormonde Maddock) Dalton
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.
