Foreshock

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small earth tremor which precedes the mainshock in an earthquake sequence.
  2. 2
    a tremor preceding an earthquake wordnet
  3. 3
    Any shock or disturbance that precedes an event figuratively

    "The FY 1981 increases in defense — something of a "foreshock" to the rapid rise in defense spending over the next several years — were prompted by the fall of the Shah in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan."

Example

More examples

"The FY 1981 increases in defense — something of a "foreshock" to the rapid rise in defense spending over the next several years — were prompted by the fall of the Shah in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan."

Etymology

From fore- + shock.

Related phrases

earth tremor

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.