Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1400-1500
Language: Latin
Origin: portendere 'to stretch forward', from tendere 'to stretch'

portend

 verb
     
por‧tend [transitive] literary
to be a sign that something is going to happen, especially something bad:
strange events that portend disaster
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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