Adjacent Words

Foretell definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FORETELL', v.t.
1. To predict; to tell before an event happens; to prophesy.
2. To foretoken; to foreshow.
FORETELL', v.i. To utter prediction or prophecy.
All the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
Acts 3.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: foreshadow or presage [syn: announce, annunciate, harbinger, foretell, herald]
2: make a prediction about; tell in advance; "Call the outcome of an election" [syn: predict, foretell, prognosticate, call, forebode, anticipate, promise]
3: indicate by signs; "These signs bode bad news" [syn: bode, portend, auspicate, prognosticate, omen, presage, betoken, foreshadow, augur, foretell, prefigure, forecast, predict]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (foretold; -telling) Date: 14th century to tell beforehand ; predict • foreteller noun Synonyms: foretell, predict, forecast, prophesy, prognosticate mean to tell beforehand. foretell applies to the telling of the coming of a future event by any procedure or any source of information <seers foretold the calamity>. predict commonly implies inference from facts or accepted laws of nature <astronomers predicted an eclipse>. forecast adds the implication of anticipating eventualities and differs from predict in being usually concerned with probabilities rather than certainties <forecast snow>. prophesy connotes inspired or mystic knowledge of the future especially as the fulfilling of divine threats or promises <prophesying a new messiah>. prognosticate is used less often than the other words; it may suggest learned or skilled interpretation, but more often it is simply a colorful substitute for predict or prophesy <prognosticating the future>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. (past and past part. -told) 1 tell of (an event etc.) before it takes place; predict, prophesy. 2 presage; be a precursor of. Derivatives: foreteller n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Foretell Fore*tell", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Foretold; p. pr. & vb. n. Foretelling.] To predict; to tell before occurence; to prophesy; to foreshow. Deeds then undone my faithful tongue foretold. --Pope. Prodigies, foretelling the future eminence and luster of his character. --C. Middleton. Syn: To predict; prophesy; prognosticate; augur.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Foretell Fore*tell", v. i. To utter predictions. --Acts iii. 24.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(foretells, foretelling, foretold) If you foretell a future event, you predict that it will happen. (LITERARY) ...prophets who have foretold the end of the world. VERB: V n, also V that/wh

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Predict, prophesy. 2. Prognosticate, foreshow, foreshadow, presignify, betoken, portend, augur, bode, forebode, presage.

Moby Thesaurus

adumbrate, announce, anticipate, apprehend, approach, augur, await, be destined, be fated, be imminent, be to be, be to come, bode, call, cast a horoscope, cast a nativity, come, come on, declare, disclose, divine, divulge, dope, dope out, dowse for water, draw near, draw on, expect, forebode, forecast, foreknow, foresee, foreshadow, foreshow, foretoken, forewarn, fortune-tell, guess, hariolate, hope, lie ahead, look for, look forward to, loom, make a prediction, make a prognosis, make a prophecy, near, plan, plot, portend, predict, prefigure, presage, proclaim, prognosticate, project, promise, prophesy, read palms, read tea leaves, read the future, reveal, soothsay, speculate, tell fortunes, tell the future, threaten, vaticinate, warn