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
He called to his mind the various portents and prophecies which had forerun their present danger.
From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 Volume 23, Number 5 by Lewis Gaylord Clark
Men of letters forerun science as the morning star the dawn.
From Dreamthorp A Book of Essays Written in the Country by Alexander Smith
Woe to light hearts, they still forerun our fall!
From The White Devil by John Webster
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
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
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
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
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
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
Seen in advance of all the other indications, the puffs of vapor they spouted, seemed their forerunning couriers and detached flying outriders.
From Moby Dick: or, the White Whale by Herman Melville
The world knows the Suez marine highway only in its utilitarian aspect, and America's interest therein is that attaching to it as an enterprise forerunning Uncle Sam's route at Panama.
From East of Suez Ceylon, India, China and Japan by Frederic Courtland Penfield
There was one swift backward movement of his mind over the chain of forerunning events.
From The Choir Invisible by James Lane Allen
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