portend

Borrowed from Latin portendere (“to foretell”), from por- (“forward”) + tendere (“to stretch”), present active infinitive of tendo.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɔːˈtɛnd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pɔɹˈtɛnd/
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

portend (third-person singular simple present portends, present participle portending, simple past and past participle portended)

1. (transitive) To serve as a warning or omen of.
   • John Milton, Paradise Lost

     A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom, / Real or allegoric, I discern not; Nor when: eternal sure--as without end,

2. (transitive) To signify; to denote.

   Let it be known that the Rapture portends the End of Days.

   • 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     When the staccato, Neptunes-ian single “Boyfriend” was released in March, musical prognosticators were quick to peg the album it portended, Believe, as Justin Bieber’s Justified, a grown-and-sexy, R&B-centric departure that evolved millennial teenybopper Justin Timberlake into one of the unifying pop-music figures of the aughts.

• foreshadow
• presage

• portent
• portentive
• portentous

• harbinger

• protend