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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prognosticate

Prognosticate \Prog*nos"ti*cate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Prognosticated; p. pr. & vb. n. Prognosticating.] [See Prognostic.] To indicate as future; to foretell from signs or symptoms; to prophesy; to foreshow; to predict; as, to prognosticate evil.
--Burke.

I neither will nor can prognosticate To the young gaping heir his father's fate.
--Dryden.

Syn: To foreshow; foretoken; betoken; forebode; presage; predict; prophesy.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
prognosticate

early 15c., a back-formation from prognostication and also from Medieval Latin prognosticatus, past participle of prognosticare (see prognostication). Related: Prognosticated; prognosticating.

Wiktionary
prognosticate

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To predict or forecast, especially through the application of skill. 2 (context transitive English) To presage, betoken.

WordNet
prognosticate
  1. v. make a prediction about; tell in advance; "Call the outcome of an election" [syn: predict, foretell, call, forebode, anticipate, promise]

  2. indicate by signs; "These signs bode bad news" [syn: bode, portend, auspicate, omen, presage, betoken, foreshadow, augur, foretell, prefigure, forecast, predict]

Usage examples of "prognosticate".

I, as my nature prompted, would not prognosticate evil, but explained it away as a mere casual incident.

Had the issue of the campaign in Catalonia been such as the beginning seemed to prognosticate, the French king might have in some measure consoled himself for his disgraces in the Netherlands.

He was intimately acquainted with the business of the house, and knew every individual member so exactly, that with one glance of his eye he could prognosticate the fate of every motion.

Some time after, the people discovered their sentiments in such a manner as was sufficient to prognosticate to the priests the fate which was awaiting them.

This prince was in the twenty-third year of his age, was of an agreeable figure, of a mild and gentle disposition, and having never discovered a propensity to any dangerous vice, it was natural to prognosticate tranquillity and happiness from his government.

The two horses, now on the west side of the racetrack, were almost neckand-neck, and it would have been difficult to prognosticate which had the better chance of victory.

In the evening previous to the feast of expiation, a man wishing to pry into futurity carried a lighted candle to the synagogue, and from particular appearances of the flame he prognosticated whether good was to follow him and his, or whether he and his family were to be overtaken by evil.

They attentively listened to the groans and cries of wild beasts, and prognosticated from them, and believed in witchcraft.

On this, the fourth day, the priests prognosticated the future state of the deceased.

Scotland also prognosticated the weather of the coming season, according to whether Candlemas was clear or foul.

I was delighted to find a change in Idris, which I fondly hoped prognosticated the happiest results.

And as it was known that his consort, who had great influence over him, was extremely disquieted in mind on account of his dissensions with the holy father, all men prognosticated to Julius final success in this unequal contest.

They had prognosticated that nothing would be done during this campaign, and began to insinuate that the duke could strike no stroke of importance without the assistance of prince Eugene.

Fortescue, there were in the inns of court about two thousand students, most of them men of honorable birth, who gave application to this branch of civil knowledge: a circumstance which proves, that a considerable progress was already made in the science of government, and which prognosticated a still greater.

The sanctuary was insensibly filled with a curious and mournful crowd, who, in his fate, prognosticated their own.