Definitions

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

  • preposition Opposite, near to, or against.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as foreanent.

Etymologies

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

[Dialectal (Scotland, northern England, and Ireland) : fore + anent, anenst (from Middle English; see anent).]

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Examples

  • He was sittin 'behind the counter upon the lang three-leggit stool that stood fornent Mr. Weft's desk, and was turning ower the leaves of his ledger, wi' a look which, for auld-fashioned sagaciousness, was wonderfu 'to behold.

    The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 275, September 29, 1827 Various

  • I think truly there was not much sleep for Margaret, even as she said, for did not I hear her moving, and I would be thinking of her turning and twisting fornent the image-glass.

    The McBrides A Romance of Arran John Sillars

  • I fear me the town had taken some of the game out of me, for when I saw the big dark horse flatten his ears, the wicked eyes rolling, and the great fore-hoofs drumming on the road, ready to leap and batter the woman and her bairn to a bloody pulp fornent me, my stomach turned, as we say, and I felt sick and giddy.

    The McBrides A Romance of Arran John Sillars

  • We came up over the last of the three lonely hills, with bare moorlands and peat hags fornent us, and away below the sea, and I held on for the house on the moor that once was McCurdy's hut.

    The McBrides A Romance of Arran John Sillars

  • By the time you're her age, she'll have a child or two, and'll mebbe be feeling very sorry for herself ... and you'll have the world fornent you still!

    The Foolish Lovers St. John G. Ervine 1927

  • I wondered sair as I sat there fornent the eyes o 'Nerli.

    Robert Louis Stevenson: a record, an estimate, and a memorial 1871

  • When the door was put ajee, and the furm set fornent the fire, I gave

    The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith David Macbeth Moir 1824

  • When the door was put ajee, and the furm set fornent the fire, I gave

    The Life of Mansie Wauch Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself David Macbeth Moir 1824

  • Nae doubt their claiths will be very grand, wi 'their crowns on their heads, and their sceptres in their hands, like the great King Ahasuerus when he sate upon his royal throne fornent the gate of his house, as we are told in Scripture.

    The Heart of Mid-Lothian 1822

  • Nae doubt their claiths will be very grand, wi 'their crowns on their heads, and their sceptres in their hands, like the great King Ahasuerus when he sate upon his royal throne fornent the gate of his house, as we are told in Scripture.

    The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete Walter Scott 1801

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