portent
portent
Definition
por·tent (pôr′tent′)
noun
- something that portends an event about to occur, esp. an unfortunate event; omen
- a portending; significance a howl of dire portent
- something amazing; marvel
Etymology: L portentum < portendere: see portend
portent
Synonyms
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?
Self-parody is the first portent of age.
This is the best portent, to fight in defence of one's country.
Browse dictionary entries near portent
- portend
- porte-monnaie
- porte-cochere
- porte-cochère
- Porte
- portcullis
- portative
- portance
- portamento
- portamenti
