From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishportendpor‧tend /pɔːˈtend $ pɔːr-/ verb [transitive] literary SOONPREDICTto be a sign that something is going to happen, especially something bad strange events that portend disaster→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
portend• We need to set the standards now, and prepare for the theological and sociological turbulence this discovery portends.• For the cellular industry, this may portend a daunting new world.• Rising infection rates portend a health-care disaster.• She sees a shooting star and is heartened by whatever hope it might portend, but before long she is crying again.• The failure in New York portended even further trouble.• What universal debauchery this might portend for our nation!• Nature seems to portend no danger and is there to be utilised by Marlowe and his lover almost as a playground.• It might portend something more: the beginning of an ideological countertrend.• Everyone knew that its sound portended the death of some one in the house within the year.Origin portend (1400-1500) Latin portendere “to stretch forward”, from tendere “to stretch” 