Presage
verb
To be a sign that something will happen in the future, usually something unpleasant.
The economic troubles of the past few months presage a difficult year for the company.
Often appears as...
- presage a downturn
- presage conflict
Usage tips
Formal
noun
A warning or indication about the future.
Her early interest in airplanes was a presage of her later career as a pilot.
Often appears as...
- presage of doom
- presage of success
Usage tips
Formal
verb
To be a sign that something will happen in the future, usually something unpleasant.
The economic troubles of the past few months presage a difficult year for the company.
Often appears as...
- presage a downturn
- presage conflict
Usage tips
Formal
noun
A warning or indication about the future.
Her early interest in airplanes was a presage of her later career as a pilot.
Often appears as...
- presage of doom
- presage of success
Usage tips
Formal
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Tone
Often implies a negative outcome or warning of something bad coming.
Dark clouds presage a storm.
Pro Tip 2/3Literary Use
Common in literature to create suspense or foreshadow events.
The eerie silence that fell over the city presaged the calamity to come.
Pro Tip 3/3Specific Context
Best used when discussing specific events rather than general situations.
The politician's reluctance to speak presaged his resignation.
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Tone
Often implies a negative outcome or warning of something bad coming.
Dark clouds presage a storm.
Pro Tip 2/3Literary Use
Common in literature to create suspense or foreshadow events.
The eerie silence that fell over the city presaged the calamity to come.
Pro Tip 3/3Specific Context
Best used when discussing specific events rather than general situations.
The politician's reluctance to speak presaged his resignation.
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Tone
Often implies a negative outcome or warning of something bad coming.
Dark clouds presage a storm.
Pro Tip 2/3Literary Use
Common in literature to create suspense or foreshadow events.
The eerie silence that fell over the city presaged the calamity to come.
Pro Tip 3/3Specific Context
Best used when discussing specific events rather than general situations.
The politician's reluctance to speak presaged his resignation.
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Quote examples
Drew Gilpin Faust
American Historian
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States embarked on a new relationship with death, entering into a civil war that proved bloodier than any other conflict in American history, a war that would presage the slaughter of World War I's Western Front and the global carnage of the twentieth century.
Quote examples
Scott Anderson
American Journalist
The modern Middle East was largely created by the British. It was they who carried the Allied war effort in the region during World War I and who, at its close, principally fashioned its peace. It was a peace presaged by the nickname given the region by covetous British leaders in wartime: 'The Great Loot.
Quote examples
Bettany Hughes
Istanbul in the snow is a wonder. The extravagant pleasures on show in the Topkapi Palace Museum - the sultan's robes thickly lined with squirrel fur, mobile foot-braziers to keep out a cold that whips relentlessly off the Bosphorus - presage modern-day sultanic delights.
Quote examples
Ben Shapiro
American Author
If the United States had maintained its spending under Ronald Reagan, it is possible that the attacks of 9/11 - presaged by Islamic terror attacks on multiple American targets beginning with the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 - would have been stopped.
Quote examples
George Packer
American Novelist
Republicans today have given the country conservatism in the spirit of Sarah Palin, whose ignorance about the world, contempt for expertise, and raw appeals to white identity politics presaged Trump's incendiary campaign.
Quote examples
Caterina Fake
American Businesswoman
Free' is the museum show of our times, presaging the whole Wikileaks dustup, and it shows shifting power dynamics and a glimpse of the human in a world of flowing data.
Quote examples
Drew Gilpin Faust
American Historian
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States embarked on a new relationship with death, entering into a civil war that proved bloodier than any other conflict in American history, a war that would presage the slaughter of World War I's Western Front and the global carnage of the twentieth century.
Quote examples
Scott Anderson
American Journalist
The modern Middle East was largely created by the British. It was they who carried the Allied war effort in the region during World War I and who, at its close, principally fashioned its peace. It was a peace presaged by the nickname given the region by covetous British leaders in wartime: 'The Great Loot.
Quote examples
Bettany Hughes
Istanbul in the snow is a wonder. The extravagant pleasures on show in the Topkapi Palace Museum - the sultan's robes thickly lined with squirrel fur, mobile foot-braziers to keep out a cold that whips relentlessly off the Bosphorus - presage modern-day sultanic delights.
Quote examples
Ben Shapiro
American Author
If the United States had maintained its spending under Ronald Reagan, it is possible that the attacks of 9/11 - presaged by Islamic terror attacks on multiple American targets beginning with the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 - would have been stopped.
Quote examples
George Packer
American Novelist
Republicans today have given the country conservatism in the spirit of Sarah Palin, whose ignorance about the world, contempt for expertise, and raw appeals to white identity politics presaged Trump's incendiary campaign.
Quote examples
Caterina Fake
American Businesswoman
Free' is the museum show of our times, presaging the whole Wikileaks dustup, and it shows shifting power dynamics and a glimpse of the human in a world of flowing data.
Example 1 of 6
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