English Dictionary

FOREBODING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does foreboding mean? 

FOREBODING (noun)
  The noun FOREBODING has 2 senses:

1. a feeling of evil to comeplay

2. an unfavorable omenplay

  Familiarity information: FOREBODING used as a noun is rare.


FOREBODING (adjective)
  The adjective FOREBODING has 1 sense:

1. ominously propheticplay

  Familiarity information: FOREBODING used as an adjective is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


FOREBODING (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A feeling of evil to come

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

boding; foreboding; premonition; presentiment

Context example:

the lawyer had a presentiment that the judge would dismiss the case

Hypernyms ("foreboding" is a kind of...):

apprehension; apprehensiveness; dread (fearful expectation or anticipation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foreboding"):

shadow (a premonition of something adverse)

presage (a foreboding about what is about to happen)

Derivation:

forebode (make a prediction about; tell in advance)


Sense 2

Meaning:

An unfavorable omen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("foreboding" is a kind of...):

omen; portent; presage; prodigy; prognostic; prognostication (a sign of something about to happen)

Derivation:

forebode (make a prediction about; tell in advance)


FOREBODING (adjective)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Ominously prophetic

Synonyms:

fateful; foreboding; portentous

Similar:

prophetic; prophetical (foretelling events as if by supernatural intervention)


 Context examples 


I went about, however, with a heart which was full of forebodings.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Then our friend Overton’s forebodings have been justified,” said Holmes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But her present forebodings she feared would experience no similar contradiction.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

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)

Bill seemed to have forgotten his forebodings of the previous night, and even waxed facetious with the dogs when, at midday, they overturned the sled on a bad piece of trail.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

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)

Mrs. Jennings, perhaps satisfied with the partial justification of her forebodings which had been found in their late alarm, allowed herself to trust in his judgment, and admitted, with unfeigned joy, and soon with unequivocal cheerfulness, the probability of an entire recovery.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Where there's a will there's a way." (English proverb)

"Let sleeping dogs lie." (Agatha Christie)

"A friend is the one that lends a hand during the time of need." (Arabic proverb)

"Speaking is silver, being silent is gold." (Dutch proverb)



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