Some foreigners and diplomats here say the new library's function as a reminder of past greatness to offset modernity's grim portents is as significant as whatever it may achieve academically.

David's father, the congregation rabbi, delivers a sermon that describes the attempted annihilation of the Purim story, a grim portent of what is to come.

Amid the tremolo-strummed guitar drones and looped drumbeats, the voices hold on to yearning despite every grim portent.

Stony silence greeted each of their demands to know why they'd been summoned, and in that disconcerting quiet, each read a grim portent.

The incompetent rule of Andronicus Comnenus allowed the Normans to go unchecked towards the Byzantine capital giving Thessalonica a savage sack (a grim portent of what Constantinople would face in 20 years time).

Those immediate financial problems led to some grim portents in the market where the power companies buy and sell electricity.

Among the grim portents they encounter is a young woman's floating corpse, which they pull ashore and bury, contrary to the orders of the local law enforcer, Commissar Vay (Janos Acs).

Perry Mason's slow grin held grim portent.

He lowered his voice, as though awed by the grim portent of that which he had discovered.

Behind them, Duncan was shouting exultantly: "Wizards, will you read me your grim portents now?