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Webster 1913 Edition

Verb.

[

imp. & p. p.

Portended

;

p. pr. & vb. n.

Portending

[L.

portendre

portentum

, to foretell, to predict, to impend, from an old preposition used in comp. +

tendere

to stretch. See

To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshow; to foretoken; to bode; – now used esp. of unpropitious signs.

Bacon.

Many signs

portended

a dark and stormy day.

Macaulay.

To stretch out before.

[R.]

“Doomed to feel the great Idomeneus’ portended steel.”

Pope.

Syn. – To foreshow; foretoken; betoken; forebode; augur; presage; foreshadow; threaten.

Verb.

[L. portendo; por; Eng. fore, and tendo, to stretch.] To foreshow; to foretoken; to indicate something future by previous signs.

A moist and cool summer portends a hard winter.