Forewinter
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The period immediately preceding or leading up to winter.
"Anybody seeing him all that forewinter long going about the sadder verges of the city might have rightly wondered what his trade was, this refugee reprieved from the river and its fishes. Haunting the streets in a castoff peacoat."
- 2 The early part of winter.
"The Early Winter, or Forewinter, period has a much less easily defined character, being dominated by alternations of progressive (W'ly or cyclonic) and blocked (anticyclonic) periods in Europe, […]"
Example
More examples"Anybody seeing him all that forewinter long going about the sadder verges of the city might have rightly wondered what his trade was, this refugee reprieved from the river and its fishes. Haunting the streets in a castoff peacoat."
Etymology
From fore- + winter. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fóarwinter (“forewinter”), West Frisian foarwinter (“forewinter”), Dutch voorwinter (“forewinter”), German Vorwinter (“forewinter”), Danish forvinter (“forewinter”), Swedish förvinter (“forewinter”), Icelandic forvetur (“forewinter”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.