The AI-powered English dictionary
third-person singular simple present prefigures, present participle prefiguring, simple past and past participle prefigured
To show or suggest ahead of time; to represent beforehand (often used in a Biblical context). examples
To predict or foresee. examples
plural prefigures
That which prefigures or appears to predict; a harbinger. quotations examples
Quite different is the way in which the tomboy girled the rebel narrative. In recent years, queer theorists have taken a deep interest in the tomboy as a prefigure for the butch dyke.
2005, Leerom Medovoi, Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity, page 293
In his influential commentary (the Moralia) Gregory the Great interpreted the protagonist typologically as a prefigure of Christ and of the Church persecuted.
2012, C. S. Shapley, Studies in French Poetry of the Fifteenth Century, page 5