forebode

present singular third person forebodes · participle present foreboding · participle past foreboded · past foreboded · alternative forbode

1. To predict a future event; to hint at something that will happen (especially as a literary device).

   There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart.

   1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

   Synonyms: foretell, portend, predict

2. To be prescient of (some ill or misfortune); to have an inward conviction of, as of a calamity which is about to happen; to augur despondingly.

   Here sits he shaping wings to fly: / His heart forebodes a mystery: / He names the name Eternity.

   1833–1834 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “The Two Voices”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 135

   2 more examples

   Sullen, desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and desolation, as the certain consequence of Caesar's death.

   1741, Conyers Middleton, Life of Cicero

   Walter was disturbed by a low rap at the door. It was so indistinct and hesitating, that, at first, he thought himself mistaken; a second summons, however, led him to rise and open to his visitor. It was the very person that he foreboded—Mr. Curl.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXI, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 160

alternative forbode

1. obsoleteprognostication; presage