Library / English Dictionary

FORESEE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: foresaw    , foreseen   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Realize beforehand

Synonyms:

anticipate; foreknow; foresee; previse

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "foresee" is one way to...):

know (be aware of the truth of something; have a belief or faith in something; regard as true beyond any doubt)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 2

Meaning:

Picture to oneself; imagine possible

Example:

I cannot envision him as President

Synonyms:

envision; foresee

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "foresee" 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 frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 3

Meaning:

Act in advance of; deal with ahead of time

Synonyms:

anticipate; counter; foresee; forestall

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "foresee" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

It was quite certain that he had foreseen his fate, and that it had caused him the utmost horror.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She could not foresee that Colonel Brandon would give me a living.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I foresaw the difficulty of arousing him, so I gathered some gravel from the pile which you have mentioned, and I used it to throw up to his window.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Therefore, he foresaw what he would do.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil, and I foresaw obscurely that I was destined to become the most wretched of human beings.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

"However, it's not hard at all to foresee significant advances based on these discoveries emerging in traditional technologies such as semiconductors and sensors."

(Research reveals exotic quantum states in double-layer graphene, National Science Foundation)

O, we must be careful. I foresee that we may yet involve your master in some dire catastrophe.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This I concealed where no one has ever discovered it; but my fears would not allow me to go back for the other, as I might perhaps have done, had I foreseen how terribly its presence might tell against my master.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His tufts of ears had become tassels, his neck and shoulders were slashed in a score of places, and his very lips were cut and bleeding—all from these lightning snaps that were beyond his foreseeing and guarding.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I explained all these things to him to the best of my ability, and he certainly left me under the impression that he would have made a wonderful solicitor, for there was nothing that he did not think of or foresee.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)