portent

a portent of things to come

Something that is indicative of what will happen or become popular in the future. I think this trend is a portent of things to come, but there's no way to know for sure.
See also: come, of, portent, thing
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

harbinger of things to come

 and portent of things to come; sign of things to come
a sample of the events that are to occur in the future. The first cuts in our budget are a harbinger of things to come. Today's visit from the auditors is a portent of things to come.
See also: come, harbinger, of, thing
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • a portent of things to come
  • harbinger
  • harbinger of things to come
  • a harbinger of things to come
  • be the shape of things to come
  • a sign of things to come
  • a straw will show which way the wind blows
  • he who gives fair words feeds you with an empty spoon
  • feel out of things
  • say a lot about (something)
References in periodicals archive
Beneficiant a plus de 16.000 agriculteurs, ces projets portent sur le repeuplement des oasis traditionnelles (200.000 plants), le renforcement du reseau d'irrigation, la realisation de six unites de valorisation et de stockage des dattes et la creation d'un signe distinctif d'origine et de qualite a la variete Majhoul.
Forte dynamique du palmier dattier dans la province d'Errachidia
Sur les 10 projets juges admissibles, 6 projets integrant des navires de la peche portent sur un volume de captures de 43.000 tonnes qui sera exploite par 20 navires de peche cotiere pour l'approvisionnement en appoint de 21 unites industrielles de conserve et de congelation.
Peche : Resultats des appels d'offres appoint au profit des industries existantes
Let's hope the re- enactment is not a portent of what could befall the city that resembles a dust bowl today.
Khushwant is a show- stopper even when he doesn't show up
Ses travaux portent presentement sur la place de la religion dans le discours politique des autochtones au Canada et sur la reconnaissance sociale et juridique des mariages religieux dans le cadre du multiculturalisme canadien.
Nouveaux collaborateurs au comite de lecture
The team was wearing black - a portent of things to come maybe?
THE BIRMINGHAM POST: Black day
This was a rich portent indeed for this man who would enter the Catholic Church 22 years later at the age of 49.
Remembering Larry
From beam quality to laser distribution and the pros and cons of microwaves, phasing and other scenarios, THE E-BOMB is a thought-provoking portent of the future of military might.
The E-Bomb
But hiPA has been a welcome portent of the season, even before global warming became so evident.
hiPA arrives, right on time
So the company rebuilt the site with help from Portent Interactive to look the same but be more search engine friendly.
A Web site gets the royal treatment: optimizing an online booking channel helped to boost hotel reservations
Parish relief officials supplemented outdoor relief with indoor relief in workhouses, a portent of the Poor Law reforms of 1834.
Susannah R. Ottaway, The Decline of Life: Old Age in Eighteenth-Century England
As previously noted in these pages (see "Another Portent of Draft Revival" in our April 4 issue), the framework for draft revival will probably resemble a proposal outlined in "The Case for the Draft," an essay by Captain Phillip Carter, U.S.
Recruitment down, chance of draft revival up
In this world Noriko is the Awakening, a portent of the Sky Demon's coming, and all the nations send their soldiers to retrieve her.
Hikawa, Kyoko. From far away
For Cross, the portent was clear: "Maybe I need to raise my prices, too," he says.--S.A.
Cross checks
He soon launched his own label, Portent Records, and sister imprint, Portent Plus.
Class act is back in Toon