Word.ws English Dictionary

foreboded

foreboded is the simple past and past participle of forebode.

Meaning of forebode

Verb

forebode (third-person singular simple present forebodes, present participle foreboding, simple past and past participle foreboded)

  1. To predict a future event; to hint at something that will happen (especially as a literary device).
    • There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC
  2. To be prescient of (some ill or misfortune); to have an inward conviction of, as of a calamity which is about to happen; to augur despondingly.
    • Sullen, desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and desolation, as the certain consequence of Caesar's death.1741, Conyers Middleton, Life of Cicero

See all 3 meanings of forebode

Forms of foreboded

alternative formforboded

Words formed from foreboded

Questions about foreboded

What is foreboded the simple past and past participle of?
Foreboded is the simple past and past participle of forebode.

Words near foreboded in the dictionary

  1. forebitten
  2. forebitter
  3. forebitters
  4. forebitts
  5. forebode
  6. foreboded
  7. forebodement
  8. forebodements
  9. foreboder
  10. foreboders
  11. forebodes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foreboded (page history and authors); forebode (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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