foretouch
nounEtymology From Middle English *foretouchen, fortouchen, equivalent to fore- + touch.
1
Figuratively A touch made in advance; (by extension) a prelude or foreshadow.
- Is it progress at all, or is it retrogression, is it light or darkness, is it civilization or a foretouch of the disrupting force of intellectual anarchy and moral decay?1863, Wiseman Review, volume 52, page 416:
- It was as if something of the Beyond unrolled itself in exquisite promise and foretouch; as if great gates were open, through which one day - into which this day was transfiguring - they might sail in to an eternal blessedness.1881, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, Odd, Or Even?, page 196:
4 more examples
- There was a foretouch of death in the thought.1905, Good Words, page 904:
- A foretouch of future shadows fell on them when they heard of Noel and Gregor MacLean having joined the London Scottish.1914, John Oxenham, Antigonos, page 281:
- In the middle distance a tall white skyscraper stood up, a prelude, or a foretouch to a great yellowish black cloud behind it.1916, Theodore Dreiser, A Hoosier Holiday, page 57:
- I felt its foretouch.1962, John Strachey, The Strangled Cry, page 34: