Pa. t. forewent; pa. pple. foregone. Forms: see GO. [OF. fore-gán, f. FORE- pref. + gán to GO.]
1. trans. To go before or in advance of; to precede: either in position or time.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. xxi. [xxiii.] (1891), 476. Oðer [steorra] hiora foreeode þa sunnan on morȝen.
1515. T. More, Chron. K. Edw. V., in Grafton, II. 757. And the yere fore goyng his death he had obtayned the towne of Barwike.
1548. Gest, Pr. Masse, 116. The experiens whereof is playn in that part of the masse that forgoeth consecration.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. Pref. By summarie contents foregoing euerie chapter, as also by certeine materiall titles added at the head of euerie page of the said historie, it is a thing of no difficultie to comprehend what is discoursed and discussed in the same.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxx. 491. We haue in the Prophets a Christ the sonne of God … whom being foregone by an Elias, it behoued to preache the kingdome of God.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. iii. § 2 (1622), 214. The cause doth alwayes his effect fore-goe.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., II. vii. 109. The constriction of the Earlets does always forego the Diastole of the Ventricles.
1879. E. Arnold, Lt. Asia, 3.
| And over half the earth a lovely light | |
| Forewent the morn. |
1884. J. Payne, Tales fr. Arabic, I. 15. So he took it and drank it off; but hardly had he done so, when his head forewent his feet and he fell to the ground like a slain man. Ibid., 185. So Abdulmelik went away to his house, whither he found that the money had foregone him.
2. intr. To go before, precede in place or time. Also quasi-trans. with cognate obj.
c. 825. Vesp Ps. lxxxviii. 15. Mildheortnis & soðfestnis foregað biforan onsiene ðinre.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter, xcvi[i]. 3. Fire bi-fore him sal for-gane.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII., 45. The wife and the man with their mutual consent adhibited and foregoing enter into religion.
1563. Mirr. Mag., Hastings, i. 5.
| Cleaving my tombe the waye my fame forewent, | |
| Though bared of loanes which body & Fortune lent | |
| Erst my proud vaunt. |
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 117.
| And nowe they bene to heauen forewent, | |
| theyr good is with them goe; | |
| Theyr sample onely to vs lent, | |
| that als we mought doe soe. |
1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 30. For any man therefore to purchase honour without some worthy action fore-going; or for any man to conferre this without merit concurring, is not truely to be Noble.
1865. Mrs. Whitney, Gayworthys, I. 116. Seizing the leathern bridle, strapped Clumsy’s neck therewith, rather as a mild casing-off for his own effervescent spirits, than in any hope of altering a gait sublimely unaffected by all that had foregone.
