forerun

present singular third person foreruns · participle present forerunning · past foreran

1. To run in front.

   Bailey still sat, doubled over his book […] A finger forerunning his eyes along the page.

   1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 22, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 131

2. To precede; to forecast or foreshadow.

   These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene 4]

   2 more examples

   And in herself she moan’d, ‘Too late, too late!’ / Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn, / A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high, / Croak’d, […]

   1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC

   Discontent foreran the Two Mutinies, and more or less it lurkingly survived them.

   1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter V.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC