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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

forerun en · VERB

Etymology

From fore- + run. Piecewise cognate of Swedish förrinna.

Meanings

  1. To run in front.
    • Bailey still sat, doubled over his book […] A finger forerunning his eyes along the page. 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 22, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 131:
  2. To precede; to forecast or foreshadow.
    • And in herself she moan’d, ‘Too late, too late!’ / Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn, / A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high, / Croak’d, […] 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:
    • Discontent foreran the Two Mutinies, and more or less it lurkingly survived them. 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter V.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:
    • These signs forerun the death or fall of kings. 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene 4]:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
foreran Tense=Past lexicographic
foreruns Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
forerunning Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
forerun Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Deriveds

forerunner

Translations (2)

la antecurrō (to run in front) · la praecurrō (to run in front)