casting a shadow

Verb

cast a shadow (third-person singular simple present casts a shadow, present participle casting a shadow, simple past and past participle cast a shadow)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cast, shadow.
2. (figuratively, idiomatic, often a tragic one) To dampen future events.
   • With the descent of the cold war, relations between the two countries (for this is, to all intents and purposes, what they became after the end of the war) were almost completely broken off, with whole families split for the ensuing decades, some for ever. This event and its after-effects, along...2011 December 19, Kerry Brown, “Kim Jong-il obituary”, in The Guardian