Library / English Dictionary

PREFIGURE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

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)

Credits