Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The art or practice of foretelling events.
- noun A prediction; a prophecy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A foretelling; a prediction; especially, the prognostication of a diviner; also, the art or occupation of divination.
- noun A true saying; truth.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete A true saying; truth.
- noun The act of one who soothsays; the foretelling of events; the art or practice of making predictions.
- noun A prediction; a prophecy; a prognostication.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A method of
foretelling the future.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the art or gift of prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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One area where no buy signal is being triggered is in municipal bonds; a factor of investors continuing to panic out of them on the word of soothsaying whimsy and in light of heated headlines noting the possibility of municipal insolvencies exacerbated by underfunded pension liabilities.
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Key point of interest in this article for me is the reference to the "soothsaying" ritual of using the cup to divine from oil poured on water in Egypt, a practice that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia.
Archive 2008-10-01 Jan 2008
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In truth, there is another aspect to this kind of soothsaying, and that is the element of creating excitement for an event where the outcome runs the risk of being a study in foregone conclusions.
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Key point of interest in this article for me is the reference to the "soothsaying" ritual of using the cup to divine from oil poured on water in Egypt, a practice that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia.
Follow-up: "Christ the Magician" Cup Jan 2008
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Isaiah did not predict coming events; indeed (for the drift of this teaching goes very strongly in that direction), that predictive prophecy is hardly to be recognized anywhere; that it is better out of our thoughts; that it is but "soothsaying" after all, and that the true work of the prophet was not to fore-tell but to "_forth_-tell," to proclaim present and eternal principles, which again were not revealed to him from above but arrived at by intuitions and meditations within his own consciousness.
To My Younger Brethren Chapters on Pastoral Life and Work 1880
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But what I will say is that your advice, if given as advice to a new, or aspiring, or up-and-coming writer, who is not gifted with the soothsaying gene like you are, then I will say that your advice, as far as it applies to the aspiring-muggle-writers, then your advice is crap.
GUEST POST: Jennifer Brissett Weighs in on the Writer Pay Rate Flap 2009
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Cowell's sucky soothsaying aside, the singing competition has settled in as a steady, even stalwart, ratings performer.
Ratings: The X Factor Establishing Itself as a Steady Performer 2011
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My fortune was that I was soon to meet my "ame soeur" at which I thought was standard soothsaying practice.
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If Steve Evans ever finds himself out of work in football, he should consider a sideline in soothsaying.
'If any non-league club can beat Manchester United, it's Crawley Town' 2011
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Landlords who know the business don't rely on such soothsaying, Engel observes.
The Mortgage Hangover Nicole Gelinas 2011
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