Word.ws English Dictionary

foretouch

foretouch verb: to touch beforehand; touch upon in advance.

Verb

foretouch (third-person singular simple present foretouches, present participle foretouching, simple past and past participle foretouched)

  1. (transitive) To touch beforehand; touch upon in advance.

Noun

foretouch (plural foretouches)

  1. (figuratively, literal) A touch made in advance; (by extension) a prelude or foreshadow.
    • Is it progress at all, or is it retrogression, is it light or darkness, is it civilization or a foretouch of the disrupting force of intellectual anarchy and moral decay?1863, Wiseman Review, volume 52, page 416
    • It was as if something of the Beyond unrolled itself in exquisite promise and foretouch; as if great gates were open, through which one day - into which this day was transfiguring - they might sail in to an eternal blessedness.1881, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, Odd, Or Even?, page 196

Examples of foretouch in a sentence

  • There was a foretouch of death in the thought.1905, Good Words, page 904:
  • A foretouch of future shadows fell on them when they heard of Noel and Gregor MacLean having joined the London Scottish.1914, John Oxenham, Antigonos, page 281:
  • In the middle distance a tall white skyscraper stood up, a prelude, or a foretouch to a great yellowish black cloud behind it.1916, Theodore Dreiser, A Hoosier Holiday, page 57:

Forms of foretouch

Verb
third-person singular presentforetouches
present participleforetouching
past participleforetouched
pastforetouched
Noun
pluralforetouches

Origin of foretouch

From Middle English *foretouchen, fortouchen, equivalent to fore- + touch.

Questions about foretouch

What does foretouch mean?
Foretouch means to touch beforehand; touch upon in advance.
How do you use foretouch in a sentence?
There was a foretouch of death in the thought.
What part of speech is foretouch?
Foretouch can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of foretouch?
The past tense of foretouch is foretouched.

Words near foretouch in the dictionary

  1. foretopmen
  2. foretops
  3. foretopsail
  4. foretopsails
  5. foretossed
  6. foretouch
  7. foretouched
  8. foretouches
  9. foretouching
  10. foretrack
  11. foretracked

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foretouch (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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