foreboding

CEFRC2

/fɔˈrboʊdɪŋ/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

Examples

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

Of ominous significance; serving as an ill omen; foretelling of harm or difficulty.
A sense of evil to come.

Extra meaning

In context

With some foreboding, we entered the petrified forest.
A sense of foreboding, the like of which he had never known before, hung heavily on him.
To me there is something sad in his life, and sometimes I have a sort of foreboding about him. I don't know why, but I fancy he will have some great trouble—perhaps an unhappy end.

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The word in print, with each source given in full.

To me there is something sad in his life, and sometimes I have a sort of foreboding about him. I don't know why, but I fancy he will have some great trouble—perhaps an unhappy end.
1876 November, Henry James, Jr., chapter XIII, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 229
A sense of foreboding, the like of which he had never known before, hung heavily on him.
1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 41
Blood on the street / Foreboding god complex / She never knew she was next
2018, “Blood on the Street”, performed by Soulfly
I feel a slight foreboding about going home this year.
1976 December 25, John Atteridg, “Going Home for the Holidays”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 26, page 18

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From Middle English forbodyng, vorboding, equivalent to fore- + bode + -ing. Compare German Vorbote (“harbinger, omen”).