The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prophesy \Proph"e*sy\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Prophesied; p. pr. & vb. n. Prophesying.] [See Prophecy.]
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To foretell; to predict; to prognosticate.
He doth not prophesy good concerning me.
--1 Kings xxii. 8.Then I perceive that will be verified Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy.
--Shak. -
To foreshow; to herald; to prefigure.
Methought thy very gait did prophesy A royal nobleness; I must embrace thee.
--Shak.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A prophecy. 2 (context historical English) A religious meeting to discuss parts of Scripture and their possible use in sermons. vb. (present participle of prophesy English)
Wikipedia
Prophecyings were religious training exercises favoured by Puritan clergy in England, significant during the 1570s. For a given Biblical text, a number of sermons would be given, which were then analysed by those present, under the guidance of a moderator.
Elizabeth I of England objected to the practice, which propagated Puritan approaches to the Bible and theology, but also was being used covertly to put together a Presbyterian system in England. She applied pressure to Edmund Grindal, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to close down the prophesyings. Grindal saw virtues in the development, in terms of improving the standard of preaching, refused to act decisively, and was sidelined. There was an official ban on prophesyings, from 1577, in the province of Canterbury.
Usage examples of "prophesying".
Then blessed he them with the blessings of Jacob the patriarch, and of Moses the servant of God, like unto the age and spiritual bearing of whom he appeared, prophesying, and praying, if their deeds agreed with their words, that they might be unconquered and fortunate, but weak and unhappy if ever they falsified their vows.
It is possible that Sire Robert may have told him that he had a damsel at Vaucouleurs who was prophesying concerning the realm of France.
Mousque counselled him not to advance any further, prophesying that he would not return.
I stay any longer, you will be prophesying my acceptance of Christianity.
She tried to dissuade me, telling me that such an attempt was foredoomed to failure and prophesying that I would be recaptured.
He went down first into the dank cellars of the Observatory of Paris, that famous Observatory where worked the great Le Verrier, who had done the proud feat of prophesying the existence of the planet Neptune.
It was the business of Calchas to go about looking at birds, and taking omens from what he saw them doing, a way of prophesying which the Romans also used, and some savages do the same to this day.
Is it because their gods are capricious, because there is so much divining, reading of signs, and prophesying that much of it must be contradictory or ambiguous, even if all is false?
I know no prophesyings which I am heeding, nor has my mother told me anything from the mouth of Jove, but I am cut to the very heart that one of my own rank should dare to rob me because he is more powerful than I am.
He it was who had guided the Achaeans with their fleet to Ilius, through the prophesyings with which Phoebus Apollo had inspired him.