prophesy

Verb

prophesy (third-person singular simple present prophesies, present participle prophesying, simple past and past participle prophesied)

1. To speak or write with divine inspiration; to act as prophet.
   • And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joel 2:28
   • No, but when the Spirit fils
     The fantastick Pannicles:
     Full of fier; then I write1648, Robert Herrick, “Not every day fit for Verse” in Hesperides, London: John Williams & Francis Eglesfield, p. 285, ’Tis not ev’ry day, that I Fitted am to prophesie
2. To predict, to foretell (with or without divine inspiration).
   • Then I perceive that will be verified
     Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy
     ‘If once he come to be a cardinal,
     He’ll make his cap co-equal with the crown.’1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
   • My Lord of Hereford here whom you call King, / Is a foule traitour to proud Herefords King, / And if you crowne him let me propheſie, / The bloud of Engliſh ſhall manure the ground, / And future ages groane for this foule act, [...]1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597...

   Synonyms:

   vaticinate

3. To foreshow; to herald; to prefigure.
   • Methought thy very gait did prophesy
     A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
4. (intransitive) To speak out on the Bible as an expression of holy inspiration; to preach.
   • […] if we consider that we have no certain wayes of determining places of difficulty and Question, infallibly and certainly […] we shall see a very great necessity in allowing a liberty in Prophesying without prescribing authoritatively to other mens consciences, and becomming Lords and Masters of...1646, Jeremy Taylor, Of the Liberty of Prophesying, Section 4, in Treatises of 1. The liberty of prophesying, 2. Prayer ex tempore, 3. Episcopacie: together with a sermon, London: R. Royston, 1648...