Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To serve as an omen or a warning of; presage.
  • transitive verb To indicate by prediction; forecast.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To stretch forth; protend.
  • To betoken; presage; signify in advance; foreshow.
  • Synonyms To forebode, augur, presage, threaten, foreshadow. See omen.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshow; to foretoken; to bode; -- now used esp. of unpropitious signs.
  • transitive verb rare To stretch out before.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive to serve as a warning or omen
  • verb transitive to signify; to denote

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb indicate by signs

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English portenden, from Latin portendere; see ten- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Latin portendere ("to foretell"), from por- ("forward") + tendere ("to stretch"), present active infinitive of tendo.

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