fore-run, v.
(fɔəˈrʌn)
[f. fore- + run.]
1. intr. To run on in front. OE. only.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John xx. 4 Se oðer leorning-cniht for-arn [c 950 Lindisf. forearn] petrus forne. |
2. trans. To outrun, outstrip.
Obs. exc. fig.| 1513 Douglas æneis xii. vi. 61 That thai forryn and gois befor alway Zephirus and Nothus. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. 186 Gif the haris had forrun the hundis. 1842 Tennyson 2 Voices 88 Forerun thy peers. 1879 Church Spenser v. 119 Even genius..cannot forerun the limitations of its day. |
† 3. To run in front of; hence, to act as harbinger of (a person). Also
transf. to precede.
Obs.| 1570 Levins Manip. 188 To forerunne, præcurrere. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 173 They often compassing the sepulcher in a ioynt procession, are fore-run and followed by the people. 1621 Quarles Argalus & P. (1678) 6 Chris-cross foreruns the Alphabet of love. 1708 Stanhope Paraphr. (1709) IV. 335 And thou, my Child John, shalt fore-tell and immediately fore-run this Saviour. 1750 Coventry Pompey Litt. (1752) 36 Thus our hero, with three footmen fore⁓running his equipage, set out in triumph. |
| absol. a 1643 W. Cartwright Siege v. iii, To forerun And lead the way t' Elysium [is] but a duty She would not thank me for. |
4. To be the precursor of (a future event, etc.).
| 1590 Greene Never too late (1600) 71 Lightning, that beautifies the heauen for a blaze, but foreruns stormes and thunder. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, ii. iv. 15 These signes fore-run the death of Kings. 1652 Sir C. Cotterell Cassandra v. ii. (1676) 487 This felicity was to fore-run the last I now can hope for. a 1711 Ken Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 219 A Star..which Eastern Gentiles guess'd was to forerun The wish'd-for Dawn of the Eternal Sun. 1834 Good Study Med. (ed. 4) II. 359 The symptoms that forerun the chicken-pox. 1859 Tennyson Idylls, Guinevere 131 The cold wind that foreruns the morn. |
5. To anticipate, forestall.
| 1591 Raleigh Last Fight Rev. 15 By anticipating and forerunning false reports. 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint., Rules & Lessons (1858) 73 Our Bodies but forerun The Spirit's duty. 1849 Longfellow Mrs. Kemble's Readings Shaks., The great poet who foreruns the ages, Anticipating all that shall be said! |
Hence
ˈforeˌrunning vbl. n. and ppl. a.| 1565 Harding Let. to Jewel in Strype Ann. Ref I. App. xxx. 72 Your forerunning sermon. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Advantcourement, forerunning. 1660 Milton Free Commw. Wks. (1847) 449/2 The diabolical forerunning Libels. 1690 Penn Rise & Progr. Quakers (1834) 50 The consummation of the legal, and fore running of the Gospel times. 1818 S. E. Pierce Bk. Psalms II. 460 Sorrows and griefs, forerunning figures of what would befall Messiah. 1872 Longfellow Div. Trag. Introitus 53 The sublime fore running of their time. |