/ English Dictionary |
PREFIGURE
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they prefigure ... he / she / it prefigures
Past simple: prefigured
-ing form: prefiguring
Sense 1
Meaning:
Indicate, as with a sign or an omen
Example:
These signs bode bad news
Synonyms:
augur; auspicate; betoken; bode; forecast; foreshadow; foretell; omen; portend; predict; prefigure; presage; prognosticate
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "prefigure" is one way to...):
bespeak; betoken; indicate; point; signal (be a signal for or a symptom of)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "prefigure"):
threaten (to be a menacing indication of something)
foreshow (foretell by divine inspiration)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Derivation:
prefigurative (indistinctly prophetic)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Imagine or consider beforehand
Example:
It wasn't as bad as I had prefigured
Classified under:
Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing
Hypernyms (to "prefigure" is one way to...):
conceive of; envisage; ideate; imagine (form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
prefiguration (the act of providing vague advance indications; representing beforehand)
prefiguration (an example that prefigures or foreshadows what is to come)