Pa. t. and pa. pple. forecast, forecasted. [f. FORE- pref. + CAST v.]
1. trans. To contrive or scheme beforehand; to arrange or plan before execution; to foreordain, predestine.
1388. [see FORECASTING vbl. sb.].
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), III. iii. 52. For sothly his deth was fore cast but if he the better sawe to hym self, for thylke that he loued & trusted vppon was his mortal enemy.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xiii. (1617), 203. At the first sight the thing which was forecast by good order, seemeth to happen by adventure.
1678. trans. Gaya’s Art of War, i. 6. [He] to whom a Sovereign hath intrusted the command of an Army, should well forecast his measures, before he go into the Field.
1751. G. West, Education, I. xlviii.
| Then swiftly drawing forth his trenchant blade, | |
| High o’er his head he held his fenceful shield; | |
| And warily forecasting to evade | |
| The giant’s furious arm, about him wheel’d. |
1835. Mrs. Johnstone, Experiences of Richard Taylor, Esq., in Tait’s Mag., II. April, 257/2. The family must hurry to the end of the game, before any of them had obtained time to play the advantageous part her ambition had forecasted.
1871. Rossetti, Poems, Ave, 44.
| Or came not yet the knowledge, even | |
| Till on some day forecast in Heaven | |
| His feet passed through thy door to press | |
| Upon His Father’s business? |
absol. 1578. J. Banister, The Historie of Man, I. 3. Since Nature (as we haue sayd) made nothyng in vayne, but all to good purpose, and (as we may say) needfully forecasted, let vs see to what end and purpose, were these Processes ordeined.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 79 b. They fore-cast for back-doores, to come in and out by vndiscouerd.
1674. N. Fairfax, A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World, 151. The same law, that for the sake of the eggs hatching, had tyed down the brisk and eager fowl so long, fore-casting also for the young ones a coming, bids it arise.
b. To consider or think of beforehand.
1534. Whittington, The Thre Bookes of Tullyes Offyces, III. (1540), 145. Who so euer wyll not forecast this, no fraude fro hym wyll be absent.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1663), 213. He fore-casted also what god he were best to call upon for aid, to wage battel with the adversary.
1671. Milton, Samson, 254.
| Not flying, but fore-casting in what place | |
| To set upon them, what advantag’d best. |
2. To estimate, conjecture, or imagine beforehand (the course of events or future condition of things). Sometimes with clause as obj.
1494. Fabyan, Chron. VII. 561. The whiche forecastyng ye great shedyng of Cristen mannys bloode … made such affectuouse labour, yt [etc.].
1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV. (an. 8), 211. Quene Margaret, after that the erle of Warwicke was sailed into Englande, euer forcastyng and doubtyng, the chaunce that might happen, did neuer cease to praie to God, to sende victory to her frendes and confederates.
a. 1602. W. Perkins, Cases Consc. (1619), 220. The Pastor falles into the sinne of Ionah, who fore-casted dangers in his calling.
1731. Swift, Strephon & Chloe, Misc. 1735, V. 42.
| A prudent Builder should forecast | |
| How long the Stuff is like to last. |
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 613.
| No skill, nor long experience could forecast | |
| The unseen approach of this destructive blast. |
1845–6. Trench, Hulsean Lect., Ser. I. vii. 113. How little, at any rate, could one or the other, could friend or foe of the nascent faith, have forecast that out of it, that nourished by the Christian books, by the great thoughts which Christ set stirring in humanity, and of which these books kept a lasting record, there should unfold itself a poetry infinitely greater, an art infinitely higher, than any which the old world had seen.
1868. G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 134. I am, I confess, quite unable to make any attempt to forecast the future with regard to this matter.
absol. a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1537), P. Than this emperour, as a shipmaister, sayling in moste faire and calme wether, forecastethe, and is in greatte thoughte and feare of tempestes and stormes to comme.
1647. Milton, Vac. Exerc., 13.
| And, if it happen as I did forecast, | |
| The daintest dishes shall be serv’d up last. |
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Discharge, xi.
| Either grief will not come, or if it must, | |
| Do not forecast. |
a. 1853. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. (1872), ii. 24. The merchant, who forecasts, saves, denies himself systematically through years, to amass a fortune, is not a very lofty being, yet he is higher, as a man, than he who is sunk in mere bodily gratifications.
3. (? from the sb.) To take a forecast of (the sky, weather); to exhibit a forecast of; to foreshadow.
1883. Mrs. Rollins, New Eng. Bygones, 94–5. They went over the day’s labors; forecasted the sky, and planned the toils of the morrow; prone all to the rest of the coming night.
1889. J. M. Robertson, Ess. towards Crit. Meth., 33. He [Du Bos] is admitted to have influenced Lessing by his discussion of the relations of poetry and painting; and his fresh resort to and explication of æsthetic impressions forecasts Diderot and still more modern types of critic.
Hence Forecasted ppl. a.
1882. Nature, XXVI. 5 Oct., 552/1. I myself, though charged with the meteorological reductions for all Scotland, have never been favoured with a single telegraphic communication of fore-casted weather from the London Office since its establishment.
