Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BODE, v.t. [Sax. bodian, bodigan, to foretell, to utter or announce; bod, an order, mandate or edict; boda, a messenger, or preacher; Sw. bod, a message, an embassy; beboda, to tell or relate; Sax. gebodian, to offer or bid, to relate, tell or announce, to command, to show, to promise. Radically, this is the same word as Bid, which see. The radical sense is, to utter, to drive out the voice.]

To portend; to foreshow; to presage; to indicate something future by signs; to be the omen of; most generally applied to things; as, our vices bode evil to the country.