Definition:
v. foretell; serve as an omen or a warning of; indicate by prediction
Example:
The king does not know what these omens portend and asks his soothsayers to interpret them.
Sentence in Classic:
The knights heard this uncommon document read from end to end, and then gazed upon each other in silent amazement, as being utterly at a loss to know what it could portend.
A needle scraped a disc; chuff, chuff chuff; then having found the rut, there was a roll and a flutter which portended God.
Between the Acts (1941) By Virginia Woolf
ContextI did remark, to be sure, that mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick; that the least sudden noise set her all in a quiver, and that she coughed troublesomely sometimes: but I knew nothing of what these symptoms portended, and had no impulse to sympathise with her.
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
Context