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FORESIGHT
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Providence by virtue of planning prudently for the future
Synonyms:
foresight; foresightedness; foresightfulness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("foresight" is a kind of...):
providence (the prudence and care exercised by someone in the management of resources)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Seeing ahead; knowing in advance; foreseeing
Synonyms:
farsightedness; foresight; prevision; prospicience
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("foresight" is a kind of...):
knowing (a clear and certain mental apprehension)
Context examples:
I wish to remind you that it was you who first said to me, with that discretion I respect in you—with that foresight, prudence, and humility which befit your responsible and dependent position—that in case I married Miss Ingram, both you and little Adele had better trot forthwith.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
This writer went through all the usual topics of European moralists, showing how diminutive, contemptible, and helpless an animal was man in his own nature; how unable to defend himself from inclemencies of the air, or the fury of wild beasts: how much he was excelled by one creature in strength, by another in speed, by a third in foresight, by a fourth in industry.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He told her of horses which he had bought for a trifle and sold for incredible sums; of racing matches, in which his judgment had infallibly foretold the winner; of shooting parties, in which he had killed more birds (though without having one good shot) than all his companions together; and described to her some famous day's sport, with the fox-hounds, in which his foresight and skill in directing the dogs had repaired the mistakes of the most experienced huntsman, and in which the boldness of his riding, though it had never endangered his own life for a moment, had been constantly leading others into difficulties, which he calmly concluded had broken the necks of many.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I heard a little sigh of satisfaction as he cuddled the butt into his shoulder; and saw that amazing target, the black man on the yellow ground, standing clear at the end of his foresight.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I seem to be in the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight and no precautions can guard against.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It seemed as if Mr Shepherd, in this anxiety to bespeak Sir Walter's good will towards a naval officer as tenant, had been gifted with foresight; for the very first application for the house was from an Admiral Croft, with whom he shortly afterwards fell into company in attending the quarter sessions at Taunton; and indeed, he had received a hint of the Admiral from a London correspondent.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
The two young men were the only talkers, but they, standing by the fire, talked over the too common neglect of the qualification, the total inattention to it, in the ordinary school-system for boys, the consequently natural, yet in some instances almost unnatural, degree of ignorance and uncouthness of men, of sensible and well-informed men, when suddenly called to the necessity of reading aloud, which had fallen within their notice, giving instances of blunders, and failures with their secondary causes, the want of management of the voice, of proper modulation and emphasis, of foresight and judgment, all proceeding from the first cause: want of early attention and habit; and Fanny was listening again with great entertainment.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
“In the act, my dear Annie,” repeated Mrs. Markleham, spreading the newspaper on her lap like a table-cloth, and patting her hands upon it, “of making his last Will and Testament. The foresight and affection of the dear! I must tell you how it was. I really must, in justice to the darling—for he is nothing less!—tell you how it was. Perhaps you know, Miss Trotwood, that there is never a candle lighted in this house, until one's eyes are literally falling out of one's head with being stretched to read the paper. And that there is not a chair in this house, in which a paper can be what I call, read, except one in the Study. This took me to the Study, where I saw a light. I opened the door. In company with the dear Doctor were two professional people, evidently connected with the law, and they were all three standing at the table: the darling Doctor pen in hand. “This simply expresses then,” said the Doctor—Annie, my love, attend to the very words—“this simply expresses then, gentlemen, the confidence I have in Mrs. Strong, and gives her all unconditionally?
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
One strong proof of my wretchedly defective nature is, that even her expostulations, so mild, so rational, have not influence to cure me of my faults; and even her praise, though I value it most highly, cannot stimulate me to continued care and foresight.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But how about the foresight and the moral retrogression?
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
