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
The cape jasmine wore hundreds of her own white favors, whose fragrance forerun the sight.
From Dr. Sevier by George Washington Cable
Gone, gone, gone! they have fled before the piercing and terrible winds that forerun the storms and the hurricanes.
From Adventures in the Philippine Islands by Paul P. de La Gironière
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
No, no, doubtless he was deceived, and it was but one of those dreams that forerun death!
From The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
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
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
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
Conroy would have smiled, but the chill that foreran the coming of the Lier-in-Wait was upon him, and his hand closed warningly on hers.
From A Diversity of Creatures by Rudyard Kipling
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
It would be interesting, if our present purposes only warranted the undertaking, to trace the forerunning conditions of a period of scientific endeavour.
From The Will to Doubt An essay in philosophy for the general thinker by Alfred H. Lloyd
From the Moment these previous, these forerunning Complaints are perceived, they allow themselves to eat nothing but gross Meat, Eggs, or strong Meat-Soups.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot
In this forerunning glow of the sunset, the pasture spread like emerald; for the dry touch of summer had not yet come near it.
From The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister
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.
