To provide a faint outline or general indication of something, or to suggest or hint at a future event.
As the sky grew dark and the wind picked up, quiet clouds started to adumbrate the storm that was coming. No one spoke, but everyone knew rain was on the way. The nervous glances and hurried steps home showed what the silence could not say.
He never said we were breaking up, but his cold tone began to adumbrate a future without me. His short answers hinted at the awful conversation I knew was coming, leaving a knot of dread in my stomach.
The clouds grew dark that morning, and Maria felt a strange tightness in her chest. She couldn't explain it, but something seemed to adumbrate trouble ahead. By afternoon, she understood why when her boss called everyone into his office with bad news about layoffs.
As the sky began to rumble and some squirrels started making tiny umbrellas, the dark clouds seemed to adumbrate a storm was coming. Of course, Bob thought the clouds just wanted to show off their new shapes, but his wet socks an hour later proved otherwise.
The detective's notes could only adumbrate the culprit’s identity. His sole piece of evidence was a single, mysterious pickle left at the scene. "Someone," he wrote, "is in a pickle now." His vague clue suggested a future arrest, but mostly just made everyone want a sandwich.
As the storm clouds gathered ominously in the distance, the darkening sky seemed to adumbrate the approaching tempest. The air grew heavy with moisture, and a distant rumble of thunder could be heard, hinting at the impending downpour.
As the sun began its descent, the sky took on an ominous hue, adumbrating the coming storm. The wind whispered through the trees, carrying with it a sense of foreboding that chilled the air. The air grew heavy with anticipation, as if nature itself was preparing for the inevitable.
As the clock struck midnight, a shadowy figure emerged from the darkness, its presence adumbrating impending doom. The air grew cold, and a sense of dread filled the room like a thick fog. The figure's eyes gleamed with malice, casting a chilling gaze upon the unsuspecting victims. Their hearts raced with fear, knowing that this encounter adumbrated a terrifying fate. Whispers of the figure's dark deeds echoed through the night, sending shivers down their spines. They knew that this was just the beginning of a nightmare that would haunt them for eternity.
In the eerie silence of the abandoned house, shadows danced ominously, adumbrating a sinister presence hidden within its depths. Every creak and groan hinted at the dark secrets that lingered beneath the surface, as if the very walls whispered tales too horrifying to utter.
As the young wizard stared into the crystal ball, he saw shadows dancing within its depths. The images seemed to adumbrate a great battle looming on the horizon, filled with darkness and danger. Goosebumps prickled along his skin as he realized the significance of what he was seeing. He knew he had to prepare himself for the upcoming struggle, even though the details were still unclear. The adumbration in the crystal ball was enough to send a shiver down his spine, reminding him of the stakes at hand in the battle between light and darkness.
During dinner, her father spoke in a quiet voice, his words careful and distant, and it seemed as if he wanted to adumbrate something serious without coming out and saying it. The unease in the room grew as everyone realized he was hinting at troubling news to come.
His sudden, brief silences and the way he avoided my eyes seemed to adumbrate a difficult conversation. I felt a familiar dread settle in my stomach, even though he had not said anything concrete about a problem between us or our future together.
The storm clouds gathering on the horizon seemed to adumbrate something worse than rain. Sarah couldn't explain the unease settling in her chest, but she'd learned to trust these feelings. She locked the windows and brought the dog inside, sensing trouble approaching even if she couldn't name it yet.
As the ominous music began to play and the lights flickered, Gary’s refusal to feed the neighbor’s pet iguana seemed to adumbrate the chaos to come; within moments, he was chasing an escaped reptile that had already claimed dominion over his favorite slippers.
Madame Zuzu’s cryptic warnings would only adumbrate my future. Her vague premonition of “an unfortunate encounter with cheese” left me wondering if I was destined for a dairy-related mishap or just a truly terrible fondue party. I cautiously began avoiding all cheddar and brie.
His silence at dinner seemed to adumbrate disappointing news. Though he avoided specifics, the dim tone of his responses and the way he looked away intimated a setback looming on the horizon, casting a vague tension over the table no one dared to address directly.
The chancellor’s speech did not explicitly state his plans, but his disquieting rhetoric and fervent nationalism did adumbrate the coming conflict. To the discerning, his words were a clear, if unspoken, prelude to war, planting a seed of deep unease about the nation's future.
The doctor's furrowed brow and careful word choice seemed to adumbrate something grave, though she refused to give us specifics until the test results returned. We sat in tense silence, trying not to let our imaginations conjure the worst possibilities, while her ambiguous warnings lingered like smoke in the sterile examination room.
Despite Marvin’s irrepressible enthusiasm, his suspicious penchant for blackout shades and garlic cloves seemed to adumbrate—rather than fully elucidate—his nocturnal predilections. The neighbors surmised either a dermatological nightmare or, less charitably, imminent membership in the undead, their curiosity percolating alongside his midnight gardening.
The dyspeptic gurgles of my corpulent, supercilious cat adumbrate a portentous event. This intestinal rumbling is my only warning before an imminent and surprisingly fragrant calamity—usually a high-velocity hairball—is deposited directly upon my finest waistcoat.
Challenging — Rare, high-register words for serious word lovers.