Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To present an indication or a suggestion of beforehand; presage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An antetype; an indication or prefiguration of something to come.
  • To shadow, indicate, or typify beforehand.

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

  • transitive verb To shadow or typi�y beforehand; to prefigure.

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

  • verb indicate by signs

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From fore- +‎ shadow.

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Examples

  • Those restrictive terms foreshadow potential future restrictions on and tiering of their book search services.

    Balkinization 2009

  • Think of these as warnings .... or maybe as those notes in classical music that 'foreshadow' a theme that comes later in the play.

    Obama On Lipstick Controversy: Attacks Media, Says "Enough Is Enough" 2009

  • You even kind of foreshadow what's coming in that regard by saying there either were no good answers or there was tap dancing around answers to questions that didn't exactly fit the sell job and how hard they hammered the talking points.

    Blog updates 2009

  • To foreshadow still another theme of the chapter, we note one other interesting overlap, in this case between religion and the absence of an ethnic affiliation.

    American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

  • Obviously, the events in 1910 are meant to foreshadow those of 1969 and 2009, since they are advertized as a trilogy, so if the League is less than effective in this adventure, clearly the story isn't over.

    Robot reviews: LoEG Century: 1910 | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment 2009

  • The Supreme Court's decision could foreshadow the fate of another Arizona law, passed this year, which directs police to stop suspected illegal aliens and arrest those without valid papers.

    Free Speech Tested Anew in Digital Age Jess Bravin 2010

  • Violent weekend clashes in Baghdad involving Iraqi soldiers, U.S. forces and a Sunni Arab Awakening Council foreshadow challenges ahead, analysts say.

    Wonk Room 2009

  • Eisenhower cautiously hoped that this announcement might foreshadow more moderate actions by Russian leaders in confronting uprisings in satellite states, a hope that would be brutally dashed in a few days.74

    Eisenhower 1956 David A. Nichols 2011

  • Violent weekend clashes in Baghdad involving Iraqi soldiers, U.S. forces and a Sunni Arab Awakening Council foreshadow challenges ahead, analysts say.

    Wonk Room » The WonkLine: March 30, 2009 2009

  • The Lords rightly defeated them then, but it turns out that this time-wasting tactic would foreshadow the current absurd game-playing.

    Letters: Crunch time for Lords and Labour 2011

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