presage

plural presages · alternative obsolete præsage

1. A warning of a future event; an omen.

   Speak frankly, Mirzes—nor believe thy words, / Whatever black preſages they contain, / Subjoin'd to all Trophonius hath foretold, / Can change my firm reſolves, or blunt my ſword.

   a. 1786, [Richard Glover], “Book the Twenty-eighth”, in [Mrs. Halsey], editor, The Athenaid, a Poem, […], volume III, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], published 1787, →OCLC, page 213, lines 354–357

2. An intuition of a future event; a presentiment.

   Glad was I when I reached the other bank. / Now for a better country. Vain presage!

   1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza 22, page 143

present singular third person presages · participle present presaging · participle past presaged · past presaged · alternative obsolete præsage

1. transitiveTo predict or foretell something.

   That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.

   2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a second term, Obama will confront familiar headwinds”, in The New York Times

   1 more example

   If I may truſt the flattering truth of ſleepe, / My dreames preſage ſome ioyfull newes at hand : / My boſomes L. ſits lightly in his throne : / And all this day an vnaccuſtom’d ſpirit, / Lifts me aboue the ground with cheatfull thoughts […]

   (Q2 version)

2. intransitiveTo make a prediction.
3. transitiveTo have a presentiment of; to feel beforehand; to foreknow.