foreshadow

present singular third person foreshadows · participle present foreshadowing · participle past foreshadowed · past foreshadowed · first person past singular foreshadowed · archaic present second person singular foreshadowest · past second person singular foreshadowed · archaic past second person singular foreshadowedst · present singular third person foreshadows · archaic present singular third person foreshadoweth · past singular third person foreshadowed · past plural foreshadowed · past subjunctive foreshadowed · participle present foreshadowing · participle past foreshadowed

1. transitiveTo suggest (someone or something) in advance; to prefigure, to presage.First known use 16th c.

   [T]he ceremonies commaunded in the lawe, did foreſhadowe Chriſt.

   1575, Martin Luther, “The Third Chapter. Verse 17.”, in [Thomas Vautrollier], transl., A Commentarie of M. Doctor Martin Luther upon the Epistle of S. Paule to the Galathians, […], revised edition, [London]: […] Thomas Vautroullier […] for William Norton, published 1588, →OCLC, folio 146, verso

   5 more examples

   [T]hat the excellency and efficacy of this [Jesus's] death and passion might appear, it was by manifold types foreshadowed, and in divers prophecies foretold.

   a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “An Exposition on the Creed”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume VI, London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1831, →OCLC, page 520

   "Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said [Ebenezer] Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!"

   1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 150

   A good man's praise foreshadoweth God's, and in His smile is heaven: […]

   1842, Martin Farquhar Tupper, “Of Neglect”, in Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, Originally Treated (Second Series), London: J[ohn] Hatchard and Son, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 133

   Even as the cloud foreshadoweth rain, so prayer foreshadoweth the blessing; even as the green blade is the beginning of the harvest, so is prayer the prophecy of the blessing that is about to come.

   1857 June 28 (date delivered), Charles H[addon] Spurgeon, “[Sermon] 138: Prayer—The Forerunner of Mercy—Ezek[iel] 36:37: A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, June 28th, 1857, by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens”, in Spurgeon’s Sermons […], volume III, [United States]: Classic Christian Library, published 1994–2023?, page 535

   I have inveigled Tristan and Iseult / Back into this thy court—to Tristan's death, / And my installing as apparent heir, / As thou foreshadowedst.

   1906, Arthur Dillon, King Arthur Pendragon, London: Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 116

2. raretransitiveOf a person: to have an intuition or premonition about (something); to forebode.

   Another consequence that he had never foreshadowed, was the implication of an innocent man in his supposed murder.

   1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “Strong of Purpose”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, 2nd book (Birds of a Feather), page 289

plural foreshadows

1. transitiveA suggestion of something in advance; a harbinger, a portent.

   Fore-shadows, call them rather fore-splendours, of that Truth, and Beginning of Truths, fell mysteriously over my soul.

   1831, Thomas Carlyle, “The Everlasting Yea”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 130

   2 more examples

   At present it is only in local glimpses, and by significant fragments, picked often at wide-enough intervals from the original Volume, and carefully collated, that we can hope to impart some outline or foreshadow of this Doctrine.

   1831, Thomas Carlyle, “The World out of Clothes”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 35

   The foreshadow of death was then falling on the mind of the Chief [FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan], and he did not, I believe, speak again.

   1887, A[lexander] W[illiam] Kinglake, “The Death of Lord Raglan”, in The Invasion of the Crimea: Its Origin, and an Account of Its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan, volume VIII (From the Opening of Pélissier’s Command to the Death of Lord Raglan), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 280

   Synonyms: foretouch, foreshadowing, omen, augury, auspice, harbinger, portent, presage