To be a sign that something will happen, usually something bad; to suggest or indicate what's coming.
From Old English 'bodian' (to announce or foretell), related to 'bode' as an archaic noun meaning 'messenger' or 'omen.' Germanic root meaning 'to proclaim.'
When someone says 'that bodes ill,' it's using a word that hasn't changed meaning in over 1,000 years—it's the same word Anglo-Saxons used to talk about omens and prophecies.
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