portendverb [ T ]
uk/pɔːˈtend/us/pɔːrˈtend/formalto be a sign that something bad is likely to happen in the future:
It was a deeply superstitious country, where earthquakes were commonly believed to portend the end of dynasties.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Predicting things and intuition
- augur
- augury
- bellwether
- betcha
- bode
- far-sighted
- intuit
- intuition
- intuitive
- nasty
- omen
- projection
- prophetic
- psychic
- read sb's mind idiom
- read sb's palm idiom
- read the runes idiom
- scenario
- scent
- visionary
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portent
noun [ C ] uk/ˈpɔː.tent/us/ˈpɔːr.tent/
Is it true that cows lying down in a field are a portent of rain?