read the runes

read the runes

To analyze current trends to predict what will happen in the future, likened to fortune telling. In this phrase, runes are esoteric, letter-like symbols associated with magic. Primarily heard in UK. All the social media companies are trying to read the runes to see what the next big thing will be, but most trends are impossible to predict.
See also: read
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

read the runes

BRITISH, LITERARY
If you read the runes, you decide what is likely to happen in the future by considering what is happening now. Back in 1989, he was the first of the east European leaders to read the runes and make the jump from communism to nationalism. Note: Runes were an alphabet used in northern Europe until medieval times. The letters were often thought to have magical properties.
See also: read
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

read the runes

try to forecast the outcome of a situation by analysing all the significant factors involved. British
The runes were an ancient Germanic alphabet once used in northern Europe, each character of which was supposed to have a secret magical significance. Small stones and pieces of bone engraved with these characters were used to try to foretell the future.
See also: read
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • off like a prom dress (in May)
  • get (one's) rocks off on (something)
  • as though
  • be out for the count
  • a Monday morning quarterback
  • shine through
  • teething
  • have teething problems
  • have teething troubles
  • have, etc. teething problems/troubles
References in periodicals archive
Someone with Tommy Miah's decades of experience in the restaurant business should know how to read the runes of fashion and this venture is a clever nod to current dining trends that keeps well-cooked authentic food at its heart.
Birkenhead MP Frank Field, and more recently Wavertree's Luciana Berger, have already read the runes and jumped ship.
If you read the runes, consult the speeches and filter out the static, you would just about recognise that Jeremy Corbyn backs a version of Norway Plus.
THE leaders of multinational businesses typically choose their words with the care of diplomats and allow analysts to read the runes.
Faylaq Al-Rahman, largely ensconced in the southwestern part of Eastern Ghouta, were initially the more hardline, refusing to read the runes and being in cahoots with Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.
Politicians and pundits try to read the runes between elections, but nothing beats cold, hard votes.
It looks like the latter, if you're inclined to read the runes of Premier League history.
New York (AirGuide - Inside Air Travel) Itas the time of year when we in the travel industry stare deep into our crystal balls, peer at the tea leaves and read the runes (and do a bit of considered research, naturally) to predict the delectable destinations that we think will hit the heights in 2015.
Faced with a potential disaster scenario emanating from Europe, investors must decide for themselves how to read the runes. But then it takes two or more different views to make the magic of the market.
He read the runes brilliantly and - having spotted that the elected mayor campaign was likely to fail - discreetly stepped aside in favour of the now discredited Labour candidate Liam Byrne and just waited for the voters to deliver the predicted landslide.
With Labour lacking a majority in the Senedd and former Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas in the wilderness after missing out on the Plaid leadership, this ex-AM read the runes and suggested the man they call Dafydd El would join the Cabinet.
The novice in the Treasury has dogmatically failed to read the runes.
Perhaps having read the runes already, he said to me that I shouldn't be too disappointed if I didn't win as there was certainly more to life than to politics.
The meeting was designed as the coronation of Bilawal, but Bilawal had read the runes and sensibly stayed away, preferring instead to open a flood-relief fund at the Pakistan High Commission in London.
Ecobank quite clearly has read the runes and sees the need for a genuinely pan-African corporate bank to service the increasing number of home-grown multinationals and their foreign counterparts.