portent Hear it!

portent Definition

por·tent (pôrtent′)

noun

  1. something that portends an event about to occur, esp. an unfortunate event; omen
  2. a portending; significance a howl of dire portent
  3. something amazing; marvel

Etymology: L portentum < portendere: see portend

portent Synonyms

portent

n.

portent Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • have: I had portents of doom: " Whatever happens, we don't get saddled wi that tube aw the way up, awright?
  • seem: Today they seem portents of a cataclysm that may not conveniently wait until we're history.
  • carry: These celestial spheres carried portents for the future, the object's in the skies carried implicit and explicit significance and meaning.
  • understand: Of course, the key point for socialists concerns how to understand the portent of these positive developments.

Adjective modifier

  • ominous: I just hope the reduced number of routes this year is not a ominous portent for 1990.
  • great: This month I start my journalistic career ' was saluted as the great portent of joy to come.
  • good: In the last local election, Labor's support increased by less than 1 % - hardly a good portent.
  • strange: There were no strange portents in the sky when Steve Redwood was born in 1943, a fact that discouraged him from the start.
  • other: These same astrologers held that comets and other portents in the heavens were fleeting appearances of the sublunary sphere.
  • first: Firstly, what is the first portent of the Hour?

Noun used with modifier

  • death: I find it interesting that so many seem to be of the ' demon dog ' and ' death portent ' kind.

Preposition: in

  • heaven: These same astrologers held that comets and other portents in the heavens were fleeting appearances of the sublunary sphere.
  • sky: Were there signs and portents in the sky on the night I was born?

Preposition: of

  • doom: Bedford on Sunday leads with " Rent increase a portent of doom.
  • death: The dog was often seen on stormy nights and was regarded as a portent of death.
  • thing: It proved to be a fair portent of things to come.
  • future: Is this a symbolic portent of the future of radio drama in the UK?
  • disaster: Many bright comets appear without much warning and this unpredictability led to them being regarded as portents of disaster in historic times.

Preposition: for

  • future: The deaths of Joy Gardner and others at the hands of immigration officers are a portent for the future.
portent Quotes

Proves she like some portent of an iceberg Swimming full upon the ship it founders Hungry with huge teeth of splintered crystals?

—Browning, Robert

Self-parody is the first portent of age.

—McMurtry, LarryJeff

This is the best portent, to fight in defence of one's country.

—Homer   8c