forewarn
forewarn verb: to warn in advance.
Verb
forewarn (third-person singular simple present forewarns, present participle forewarning, simple past and past participle forewarned)
- To warn in advance.
- And ſure, although it was invented to eaſe his mynde of griefe, there be a number of caveats therein to forewarne other young gentlemen to foreſtand with good government their folowing yl fortunes; […]1576, George Whetstone, “The Ortchard of Repentance: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of...
- “I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I ? Why didn’t I telephone ? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape.[…]”1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad, →OL
forewarn meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
forewarn in Tamil
- முன்னெச்சரி
forewarn in Urdu
- خبردار کرنا
forewarn in Malayalam
- warn in advance, warn, give advance warning
- താക്കീതുചെയ്ക, മുൻജാഗ്രത ചെയ്യുക, മുന്നുപദേശിക്കുക, മുന്നറിയിപ്പു നൽകുക, മുന്നറിവുകൊടുക്കുക, കരുതിക്കൊള്ളാൻ പറയുക
forewarn in Kannada
- ಮುನ್ನೆಚ್ಚರಿಸು, ಮುನ್ನೆಚ್ಚರಿಕೆ ಕೊಡು
Forms of forewarn
| third-person singular present | forewarns |
|---|---|
| present participle | forewarning |
| past participle | forewarned |
| past | forewarned |
Origin of forewarn
Early 14th century, from Middle English *forewarnen (suggested by Middle English forewarned, forewarning, forewarner, etc.), from Old English forewarnian (“to take warning beforehand; forewarn”), from Proto-Germanic *furawarnōną (“to forewarn”), equivalent to fore- + warn. Cognate with German vorwarnen (“to forewarn”), Swedish förvarna (“to forewarn”).
Words formed from forewarn
Questions about forewarn
- What does forewarn mean?
- Forewarn means to warn in advance.
- What is forewarn in Tamil?
- Forewarn in Tamil is முன்னெச்சரி. See Forewarn meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is forewarn?
- Forewarn is a verb.
- What is the past tense of forewarn?
- The past tense of forewarn is forewarned.
Words near forewarn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: forewarn (page history and authors); forewarn (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); forewarn (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); forewarn (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); forewarn (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “forewarn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forewarn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
