FOREBODE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does forebode mean? 

• FOREBODE (verb)
  The verb FOREBODE has 1 sense:

1. make a prediction about; tell in advance

  Familiarity information: FOREBODE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOREBODE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they forebode    ... he / she / it forebodes   
Past simple: foreboded   
Past participle: foreboded   
-ing form: foreboding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a prediction about; tell in advance

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

anticipate; call; forebode; foretell; predict; prognosticate; promise

Context example:

Call the outcome of an election

Hypernyms (to "forebode" is one way to...):

guess; hazard; pretend; venture (put forward, of a guess, in spite of possible refutation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "forebode"):

read (interpret the significance of, as of palms, tea leaves, intestines, the sky; also of human behavior)

outguess; second-guess (attempt to anticipate or predict)

augur (predict from an omen)

bet; wager (maintain with or as if with a bet)

calculate; forecast (predict in advance)

prophesy; vaticinate (predict or reveal through, or as if through, divine inspiration)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

foreboding (an unfavorable omen)

foreboding (a feeling of evil to come)

 Context examples 

My mother had a sure foreboding at the second glance, that it was Miss Betsey.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Catherine would make a sad, heedless young housekeeper to be sure,” was her mother's foreboding remark; but quick was the consolation of there being nothing like practice.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A sudden seizure of a different nature from any thing foreboded by her general state, had carried her off after a short struggle.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Strange to say, in spite of the general foreboding, nothing of especial moment happened on the Ghost.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

"I wish he would come! I wish he would come!" I exclaimed, seized with hypochondriac foreboding.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Sir Thomas's sending away his son seemed to her so like a parent's care, under the influence of a foreboding of evil to himself, that she could not help feeling dreadful presentiments; and as the long evenings of autumn came on, was so terribly haunted by these ideas, in the sad solitariness of her cottage, as to be obliged to take daily refuge in the dining-room of the Park.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Jo spoke hopefully, but could not rid herself of the foreboding fear that this 'little trial' would be harder than the others, and that Laurie would not get over his 'lovelornity' as easily as heretofore.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Mrs Smith made no reply; but when she was leaving her said, and with an expression half serious, half arch, Well, I heartily wish your concert may answer; and do not fail me to-morrow if you can come; for I begin to have a foreboding that I may not have many more visits from you.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

A miserable foreboding that she would yield to, and sustain herself by, the same feeling in reference to any sacrifice for his sake, had oppressed me ever since.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A sudden scud of rain, driving full in her face, made it impossible for her to observe anything further, and fixed all her thoughts on the welfare of her new straw bonnet; and she was actually under the abbey walls, was springing, with Henry's assistance, from the carriage, was beneath the shelter of the old porch, and had even passed on to the hall, where her friend and the general were waiting to welcome her, without feeling one awful foreboding of future misery to herself, or one moment's suspicion of any past scenes of horror being acted within the solemn edifice.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)