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FOREBODING
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An unfavorable omen
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("foreboding" is a kind of...):
omen; portent; presage; prodigy; prognostic; prognostication (a sign of something about to happen)
Derivation:
forebode (make a prediction about; tell in advance)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A feeling of evil to come
Example:
the lawyer had a presentiment that the judge would dismiss the case
Synonyms:
boding; foreboding; premonition; presentiment
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("foreboding" is a kind of...):
apprehension; apprehensiveness; dread (fearful expectation or anticipation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foreboding"):
shadow (a premonition of something adverse)
presage (a foreboding about what is about to happen)
Derivation:
forebode (make a prediction about; tell in advance)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Ominously prophetic
Synonyms:
fateful; foreboding; portentous
Classified under:
Similar:
prophetic; prophetical (foretelling events as if by supernatural intervention)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb forebode
Context examples:
If it is a feminine delusion, leave us to enjoy it while we may, for without it half the beauty and the romance of life is lost, and sorrowful forebodings would embitter all our hopes of the brave, tenderhearted little lads, who still love their mothers better than themselves and are not ashamed to own it.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Sir Thomas's sending away his son seemed to her so like a parent's care, under the influence of a foreboding of evil to himself, that she could not help feeling dreadful presentiments; and as the long evenings of autumn came on, was so terribly haunted by these ideas, in the sad solitariness of her cottage, as to be obliged to take daily refuge in the dining-room of the Park.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Mrs Smith made no reply; but when she was leaving her said, and with an expression half serious, half arch, Well, I heartily wish your concert may answer; and do not fail me to-morrow if you can come; for I begin to have a foreboding that I may not have many more visits from you.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
A miserable foreboding that she would yield to, and sustain herself by, the same feeling in reference to any sacrifice for his sake, had oppressed me ever since.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope, which I dared not trust myself to question but which was intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil that made my heart sicken in my bosom.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Mrs. Jennings had determined very early in the seizure that Marianne would never get over it, and Colonel Brandon, who was chiefly of use in listening to Mrs. Jennings's forebodings, was not in a state of mind to resist their influence.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
A sudden scud of rain, driving full in her face, made it impossible for her to observe anything further, and fixed all her thoughts on the welfare of her new straw bonnet; and she was actually under the abbey walls, was springing, with Henry's assistance, from the carriage, was beneath the shelter of the old porch, and had even passed on to the hall, where her friend and the general were waiting to welcome her, without feeling one awful foreboding of future misery to herself, or one moment's suspicion of any past scenes of horror being acted within the solemn edifice.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Jo spoke hopefully, but could not rid herself of the foreboding fear that this 'little trial' would be harder than the others, and that Laurie would not get over his 'lovelornity' as easily as heretofore.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
How from counting months, we came to weeks, and then to days; and how I then began to be afraid that I should not be sent for and when I learnt from Steerforth that I had been sent for, and was certainly to go home, had dim forebodings that I might break my leg first.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Steerforth and the rest to work: which is only second, in my foreboding apprehensions, to the time when the man with the wooden leg shall unlock the rusty gate to give admission to the awful Mr. Creakle.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
