Meanings
foreshow1
present singular third person foreshows · participle present foreshowing · past foreshowed · participle past foreshown · alternative foreshew
- archaictransitiveTo show in advance; to foretell, predict.
What could the soothsayer foreshow that we knew not before? The future is written in the past; and if we prophesy, it is with eyes that look behind.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 3141 more example
Amid his senses' giddy wheel, / Did he not desperate impulse feel, / Headlong to plunge himself below, / And meet the worst his fears foreshow?— […]
1810, Walter Scott, “Canto II. The Island.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza XXXI, pages 85–86 - obsoletetransitiveTo foreshadow or prefigure.
But if the rays break forth out of the middle, or dispersed, and its exterior body, or the out parts of it, be covered with clouds, it foreshows great tempests both of wind and rain.
1841, Francis Bacon, Basil Montagu, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England
foreshow2
plural foreshows
- obsoleteA manifestation in advance; a prior indication.
The fore-shew of their inclination whilest they are young is so uncertaine […] that it is very hard, (yea for the wisest) to ground any certaine judgement […].
, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.139
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
foreshow · verb
- Old Englishforescēawian“to foreshow, foresee; preordain, decree, appoint; provide, furnish with”
- Middle Englishforeschewen
- Englishforeshow
From Middle English foreschewen, from Old English forescēawian (“to foreshow, foresee; preordain, decree, appoint; provide, furnish with”), equivalent to fore- + show. Cognate with Dutch voorschouwen, German vorschauen.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →foreshow · noun
- 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-
- Englishshow
- Englishforeshow
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with foreshow
All rhymes →Cite this entry
foreshow. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foreshow
“foreshow.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foreshow. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “foreshow,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/foreshow.
Source: foreshow on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.