as in to anticipate
to give a slight indication of beforehand
the strife in Bloody Kansas in the 1850s adumbrated the civil war that would follow
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Recent Examples of adumbrate
In between, works by contemporaries complicate superficial ideas about his meteoric genius, and small, delicate drawings teem with an abundance of ideas — paintings never made, thoughts adumbrated then abandoned.
—
Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2019
Nothing in America’s tepid 19th-century contributions to European classical music adumbrated it; nor did the homely and sometimes hokey popular songs of Stephen Foster.
—Heather Mac Donald, National Review, 22 Aug. 2019
The helicopter crash, on the other hand, is a narrative dead end, merely adumbrating the portrait that Mr. Davenport will draw of Mr. Bezos as unflappable.
—Randall Stross, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2018
Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2019
Nothing in America’s tepid 19th-century contributions to European classical music adumbrated it; nor did the homely and sometimes hokey popular songs of Stephen Foster.
—Heather Mac Donald, National Review, 22 Aug. 2019
The helicopter crash, on the other hand, is a narrative dead end, merely adumbrating the portrait that Mr. Davenport will draw of Mr. Bezos as unflappable.
—Randall Stross, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for adumbrate
Verb
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Cleveland-Cliffs reported a loss of 92 cents per share for the fourth quarter, while analysts were anticipating a loss of 61 cents, according to LSEG.—
Pia Singh,
CNBC,
25 Feb. 2025
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Nor had the West anticipated that the Houthis in Yemen, a supposedly ragtag militia that had received a large arsenal of missiles from Tehran, would be capable of bringing global shipping in the Red Sea to a near standstill.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Stylistically, The Interrogation foreshadows the conventions that would characterize Wang’s later works.—
Philip Tinari,
Artforum,
1 Mar. 2025
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As with previous outings, death is foreshadowed before flashing back one week earlier to the guests’ arrival at the elite five-star White Lotus resort.—
Nina Metz,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Over-fitting forces the model to be specialized to the low amount of data and thus cannot predict accurately.—
Vipin Bharathan,
Forbes,
25 Feb. 2025
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Oregon, Virginia, Nevada and Louisiana are among the states predicted by the KFF to experience the biggest drop in Medicaid enrolment should the cuts happen, as the map above shows.—
Matt Robison,
Newsweek,
25 Feb. 2025
Verb
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The widescreen, 35mm format prefigured IMAX and other high-density imagery in a way that still stuns on screen.—
John Wenzel,
The Denver Post,
31 Jan. 2025
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The Page Act prefigured the near-total ban on Chinese immigration to the U.S. seven years later, with the Exclusion Act of 1882—the country’s first federal law to restrict a group on the basis of race.—
Jane Hu,
The New Yorker,
23 Jan. 2025
Verb
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This implies a very strong Debt-to-Equity Ratio of 2.8% (vs. 19.7% for S&P 500).—
Trefis Team,
Forbes,
27 Feb. 2025
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For the full year: Total revenue in the range of $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion, implying between 7% to 8% growth.—
Kevin Stankiewicz,
CNBC,
27 Feb. 2025
Verb
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That film was heralded as Daniel Craig’s last appearance in the 007 role, and in the four years since, there’s been very little movement on the Bond front, as no actor — despite rumors — has yet been handed the Walther and martini.—
Daniel Kreps,
Rolling Stone,
20 Feb. 2025
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The 4 Nations Face-Off is meant to herald the NHL's return to the Winter Olympics.—
Andrew King,
Axios,
13 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Neither Churchill nor Mellon could foresee that the main beneficiary of a tottering world economy would eventually be Hitler.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Feb. 2025
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While there’s no crystal ball, many beauty companies, such as Unilever, foresee after a soft start to 2025 that the market will gain more traction in the second half of the year.—
Kathryn Hopkins,
WWD,
25 Feb. 2025
Articles Related to adumbrate
Cite this Entry
“Adumbrate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/adumbrate. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.
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