v. [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 | |
| Ȝephirus and Nothus, swyftest wyndis tuay. |
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. 186. Gif the haris had forrun the hundis.
1842. Tennyson, 2 Voices, 88.
| Forerun thy peers, thy time, and let | |
| Thy feet, millenniums hence, be set | |
| In midst of knowledge, dream’d not yet. |
1879. Church, Spenser, v. 119. Even genius must wait for the gifts of time. It cannot forerun the limitations of its day, nor anticipate the conquests and common possessions of the future.
† 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 Sepulchre in a joynt procession, are fore-run and followed by the people with savage clamours.
1621. Quarles, Argalus & P. (1678), 6.
| Fear not, what thou ador’st; begin to move, | |
| 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, to fit Men for a due Reception of him.
1750. Coventry, Pompey Litt. (1752), 36. Thus our hero, with three footmen fore-running his equipage, set out in triumph for his new apartments.
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. Shaks., Rich. II., II. iv. 15. These signes fore-run the death of Kings.
1652. Cotterell, trans. Cassandra, V. ii. (1667), 720. Without doubt this Felicity was to fore-run the last I now can hope for.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymn. 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. |
1822. Good, Study Med. (1823), II. 401. ‘This disorder,’ says he, ‘is preceded for three or four days by all the symptoms which forerun the chicken-pox, but in a much higher degree.’
1859. Tennyson, Idylls, Guinevere, 131.
| Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn, | |
| A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high. |
5. To anticipate, forestall.
1591. Raleigh, Last Fight Rev. (Arb.), 15. Hoping to possesse the ignorant multitude by anticipating and forerunning false reports.
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., Rules & Lessons (1858), 73.
| When first thy Eies unveil, give thy Soul leave | |
| To do the like; our Bodies but forerun | |
| The spirits duty; True hearts spread, and heave | |
| Unto their God, as flow’rs do to the Sun. |
1849. Longf., Mrs. Kemble’s Readings Shaks., 5.
| How our hearts glowed and trembled as she read, | |
| Interpreting by tones the wondrous pages | |
| Of the great poet who foreruns the ages, | |
| Anticipating all that shall be said! |
Hence Forerunning vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1565. Harding, Lett. to Jewel, in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. App. xxx. 72. Of your forerunning Sermon I require a Copie.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Avantcourement, forerunning.
1660. Milton, Free Commw., Wks. (1847), 449/2. Let them but now read the diabolical forerunning Libels, the Faces, the Gestures that now appeer foremost and briskest in all publick places, as the Harbingers of those that are in expectation to raign over us.
1690. Penn, Rise & Progr. Quakers (1834), 50. The consummation of the legal, and fore running of the gospel-times, the time of the kingdom.
1818. S. E. Pierce, Bk. Psalms, II. 460. Several of his enemies, sorrows, and griefs, forerunning figures of what would befall Messiah, and come upon him.
1871. Longf., Div. Trag., Introitus, 48.
| The age in which they live | |
| Will not forgive | |
| The splendor of the everlasting light, | |
| That makes their foreheads bright, | |
| Nor the sublime | |
| Fore-running of their time! |
