prefigure
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to show or represent beforehand by a figure or type; foreshadow.
-
to picture or represent to oneself beforehand; imagine.
verb
-
to represent or suggest in advance
-
to imagine or consider beforehand
Other Word Forms
- prefigurative adjective
- prefiguratively adverb
- prefigurativeness noun
- prefigurement noun
- unprefigured adjective
Etymology
Origin of prefigure
1400–50; late Middle English < Late Latin praefigūrāre. See pre-, figure (v.)
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.
None prefigure a world I want to live in.
From Salon • Nov. 24, 2021
Its remaining original construction — in the vernacular idiom, with touches that prefigure the Baroque, and an Orientalist flared red ceramic tile roof — dates to the late 1500s.
From New York Times • Sep. 24, 2021
People who have received the shots two to four weeks earlier should watch for symptoms that may prefigure the onset of clotting.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 13, 2021
But Warner Bros has undergone a series of personnel shake-ups under Stankey that prefigure the HBO Max controversy.
From Washington Post • Dec. 9, 2020
Why does the delay of thy letter prefigure at once greater pains, ah, the greatest, before my soul?
From Titan: A Romance Vol. II (of 2) by Jean Paul
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.
