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portend Definition

por·tend (pôr tend′)

transitive verb

  1. to be an omen or warning of; foreshadow; presage
  2. to be an indication of; signify

Etymology: ME portenden < L portendere < por-, akin to per, through + tendere, to stretch: see thin

portend Synonyms

portend

v.

forecast, predict, herald; see hint, warn 1.

portend Usage Examples

Object

  • death: A failed crop of ash seeds or ' keys ' portends a death in the royal family within the year.
  • change: This portends colossal changes in the future of our Solar System.
  • acceleration: Verizon's recent $ 3 billion VoIP sales manager initiative with Nortel Networks portends acceleration of efforts to packetize its sales manager core network.
  • disaster: It would be a mistake to assume that they all portend disaster.
  • war: Bush's vow to root out terrorists wherever they are seemed to portend a protracted religious war.
  • thing: The survey also portends much worse things to come.

Preposition: for

  • future: What do they portend for the future of world Jewry?

Adjective complement

  • good: In King Lear, Gloucester utters the words: " These late eclipses of the sun and moon portend no good to us " .

Modifying Another Word

  • ill: A rare failure on all levels - conception, execution and delivery - the show portended ill for Euston's survival.
  • also: The survey also portends much worse things to come.
  • well: That an AES should unearth this type of profile, and a US one at that, indeed portends well.
  • all: It would be a mistake to assume that they all portend disaster.
  • not: This does not portend mind-control or ' Big Brother, ' for it is much more subtle than that.