SOONPREDICTto be a sign that something is going to happen, especially something bad 预示〔尤指不祥之事〕,为…的凶兆
strange events that portend disaster
预示着灾难的奇怪事件
Examples from the Corpus
portend• We need to set the standards now, and prepare for the theological and sociological turbulence this discoveryportends.• For the cellularindustry, this may portend a daunting new world.• Rising infection rates portend a health-care disaster.• She sees a shootingstar and is heartened by whatever hope it might portend, but before long she is crying again.• The failure in New York portended even furthertrouble.• What universaldebauchery this might portend for our nation!• Nature seems to portend no danger and is there to be utilised by Marlowe and his lover almost as a playground.• It might portend something more: the beginning of an ideological countertrend.• Everyone knew that its sound portended the death of some one in the house within the year.
Originportend
(1400-1500)Latinportendere“to stretch forward”, from tendere“to stretch”