Also 4 futur. [a. OF. and F. futur masc., future fem., ad. L. futūrus, fut. pple. of esse to be, f. stem fu- (see BE etym. 3).]
A. adj.
1. That is to be, or will be, hereafter. Often qualifying a sb., with the sense: The person or thing that is expected to be (what the sb. denotes).
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 748. Futur tyme, er I was in the snare, Coude I not seen.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xxviii. 105 (Harl. MS.). Vyneger was gode, & that is for þe preterit tyme; wyne is gode, & þat is for the presente tyme; and muste shalle be gode, & that is for the future tyme.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 860. There is no likelihood of future sedition … in any of the kingdoms.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., I. vii. The trifling doubts and jealousies of future sects.
1725. Watts, Logic, II. v. § 7. We attain the greatest assurance of things past and future by divine faith.
1816. M. Greenleaf, Distr. Maine, 136. Like every thing future, all speculations on this subject must … be in a measure uncertain.
1838. Lytton, Alice, 25. I wish I were the future Lady Vargrave.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 228. In its first or Pluteus condition, the little embryo bears no resemblance whatever to the future animal.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxvi. 374. To help future observers to place this point beyond doubt, etc.
1882. J. H. Blunt, Ref. Ch. Eng., II. 428. The series of events which the future Cardinal thus indicated in outline.
1884. Bosanquet, trans. Lotze’s Metaphysic, 264. In a timeless system there would be no possibility of the change by means of which s3 would be moved out of its place into that of s4: yet this would be necessary if to one and the same consciousness that is to become Present which was previously Future to it.
1895. Law Times, XCVIII. 280/1. The injury … blighting the plaintiff’s whole future career.
b. In certain contexts used spec. with reference to the condition of the soul after death. A future state, life: existence after death, esp. as an object of belief.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. Contents. It is partly upon his Ignorance of future Events, and partly upon the Hope of a Future State, that all his Happiness in the present depends.
1799. Willes & Durnford, Comm. Pleas Cases, 550. Supposing an infidel who believes a God … but does not believe a future state, be examined on his oath.
1883. J. Gilmour, Among the Mongols, xvii. 207. The theory of a man’s future state depending simply on the preponderance of his good or bad actions.
c. absol. or ellipt.; esp. in phr. in future.
1607. Shaks., Timon, I. i. 141. Three Talents on the present; in future, all.
1650. Weldon, Crt. Jas. I., 155. It utterly cast him out of all favour from the King in future.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 78. Him God beholding from his prospect high. Wherin past, present, future he beholds.
1808. T. Lindley, Voy. Brasil, 28. I shall be obliged to … endure a dark room in future.
2. Of or pertaining to time to come; esp. in Gram. of a tense: Relating to time to come; describing an event yet to happen. Also ellipt. (= future tense).
Future perfect (tense): expressing an event or action viewed as past in relation to a given future time.
1530. Palsgr., 84. The future tens, as je parleráy.
1579. Fulke, Refut. Rastel, 768. Hee maketh them somewhat plainer by chaunging the pretertence into the future.
1612. Brinsley, Pos. Parts (1669), 34. What time speaks the Future Tense of? A. Of the time to Come.
1633. Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester, Manchester al Mondo (1636), 32. Man is a future creature, the eye of his soule lookes beyond this life.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 51. 1/2. Tho’ the first Aorist be … used for the second future.
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 124. The first Future Tense … The second Future.
† 3. Loosely used for: Subsequent (to a specified past epoch).
1600. J. Lane, Tom Tel-troth, 120. Since those times by future times were changed.
1630. R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 114. Scotland … in times past began at the Mountaine Grampius…. But in future times, by the extinguishment of the Picts, it reached also unto Tweed.
1664. Power, Experimental Philosophy, II. 107. Whose Mechanical Prognosticks seldom failed, but were still made good by the future event of the Experiments.
1858. W. L. Sargant, Soc. Innov., 27. This rhapsody will not be intelligible to those unacquainted with St. Simon’s future history.
B. sb.
† 1. pl. Future events. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., V. vi. 133 (Camb. MS.). It … procedith fro preteritz in to futuris. Ibid., 134. It ne hath nat the futuris þat ben nat yit.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 476. Providence against all sorts of Futures that fall under our Care.
2. The future. a. Time to come; future time. Phr. For the future: in all future time.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 5015. Aforn hir she may see In the future som socour.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well that ends Well, IV. ii. 63.
| That what in time proceeds, | |
| May token to the future, our past deeds. |
1693. Hum. & Conv. Town, 63. All the Fury of Minor Criticks follow … all his Opinions for the future.
1796. Campaigns, 1793–4, II. viii. 52. I’ll … teach him to take better care for the future.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., I. iii. 52. The future is like a dead wall or a thick mist hiding all objects from our view.
1878. Morley, Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. I. 197. Like Comte, in his ideas of temporal reconstruction, Mr. Carlyle goes back to something like the forms of feudalism for the model of the industrial organization of the future.
personified. 1821. Shelley, Adonais, i. Till the Future dares Forget the Past.
b. What will happen in the future.
1607. Shaks., Timon, II. i. 157. The future comes apace.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 81.
| Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv’n, | |
| That each may fill the circle mark’d by heav’n. |
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xxix. (1787), 85. The future [is the object] of hope and fear.
1820. Lamb, Elia, Oxf. in Vac. The mighty future is as nothing, being everything!
1866. Gladstone, in Pall Mall G., 28 July (1892), 1/2. You cannot fight against the future … time is on our side.
3. a. A condition in time to come different (esp. in a favorable sense) from the present.
1852. H. Rogers, Ecl. Faith (1853), 61. Every little present has its little future for which we live.
1879. E. Arnold, Lt. Asia, v. 132. Making all futures fruits of all the pasts.
1891. C. James, Rom. Rigmarole, 86. I would soon carve out a new future for us both.
b. The prospective condition (of a person, country, etc.).
1858. Lytton, What Will He Do with It? II. viii. My sacrifice to Jasper’s future might not have been in vain.
1863. Mary Howitt, F. Bremer’s Greece, I. viii. 263–4. When you are in Athens you should, if it be possible, see everything which belongs to the future of Greece.
1882. Pebody, Eng Journalism, xx. 152. Its future is a future which … is likely to add fresh lustre to the Newspaper Press.
4. Gram. = future tense: see A. 1.
1881. Rutherford, New Phrynichus, 405. It affords the necessary authority to supply deponent futures to a group of verbs … of which by a singular fatality no future form has been preserved.
5. One who is affianced in marriage, one’s betrothed. [After F. futur, future.]
1827. T. Moore, Mem. (1854), V. 196. Lord Charles took his pretty future to Church this morning to receive the sacrament.
6. Comm. in pl. Goods (esp. corn, cotton and other produce) and stocks sold on an agreement for future delivery. Also, contracts to sell or buy on these terms. Also attrib., as in future system.
1880. Daily News, 10 Nov., 3/8. American futures are in better demand.
1883. Manch. Exam., 6 Nov., 4/4. Amongst the new developments of the cotton trade, the buying of futures may be looked upon as the most prominent.
1888. Times, 26 June, 12/1. Coffee very dull on the spot and not much done in futures.
1896. Daily News, 22 Sept., 8/4. The question on the programme was that of ‘futures.’
1897. Westm. Gaz., 5 Jan., 9/1. The future system had created … in New York … an enormous market.
