Meanings
present singular third person forehears · participle present forehearing · participle past foreheard · past foreheard
- intransitivetransitiveTo hear beforehand.
In that flash of time as his fingers had touched the handle of the table-spoon, he had foreseen John's wild rush to the doors, he had foreheard John's agitated cry of "Thieves! Police! Burglars!"
1905, Margaret Westrup, “Billy's Long Day”, in The Idler, volume 26, page 6042 more examples
[…] mingled into one beautiful and continuous peal of that earthly harmony which Heaven has given us as a forehearing of those sublimer harmonies that, in its everlasting bowers, take the imprisoned soul, "and lap it in elysium."
1837 January 28, “The Pleasures of Winter”, in The Spirit and Manners of the Age, volume 3Holiday labor at the island today: being his guest is a hazardous responsibility: I foresee a swell and forelean to a spumy pitch and forehear the scuff of a badly perched sack of cement as it slips into the racing bay, and my New York imagination […]
2014, Joseph McElroy, Ancient History: A Paraphrase
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*per-
- Proto-Indo-European*preh₂-
- Proto-Indo-European*pr̥h₂éy
- Proto-Germanic*furai
- Proto-Germanic*furai-
- Proto-West Germanic*forē-
- Old Englishfore-
- Middle Englishfore-
- Englishfore-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂eḱ-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂ew-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂ṓws
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂ḱh₂owsyéti
- Proto-Germanic*hauzijaną
- Proto-West Germanic*hauʀijan
- Old Englishhīeran
- Middle Englishheren
- Englishhear
- Englishforehear
Cite this entry
forehear. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forehear
“forehear.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forehear. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forehear,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forehear.
Source: forehear on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.