Forebode, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Foreboded; p. pr. & vb. n. Foreboding.]
Etymology: [AS. forebodian; fore + bodian to announce. See Bode v. t.]
1. To foretell.
2. To be prescient of (some ill or misfortune); to have an inward conviction of, as of a calamity which is about to happen; to augur despondingly. His heart forebodes a mystery. Tennyson. Sullen, desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and desolation, as the certain consequence of Cæsar's death. Middleton. I have a sort of foreboding about him. H. James.
Syn. -- To foretell; predict; prognosticate; augur; presage; portend; betoken.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Forebode, v. i.
To fortell; to presage; to augur. If I forebode aright. Hawthorne.
Forebode, n.
Prognostication; presage. [Obs.]
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for forebode; he lists it under augur.
Where he writes about it:
"Persons or things augur; persons only forebode or presage; things only betoken or portend." CRABB English Synonymes. — from augur
We forebode misfortune either from circumstances that betoken failure, or from gloomy fancies for which we could not give a reason. — from augur