characterized by or pertaining to emotion: the emotive and rational capacities of humankind. 2. productive of or directed toward the emotions: Artistic distortion is often an emotive use of form.
Portend means to show a sign that something calamitous is about to happen. The teetering, tottering, pile of fine china piled up after the dinner party portends an imminent crash of broken plates and dishes. Portend is a verb warning of omens, or bad signs. Dark clouds rumbling in over a county fair in Kansas portend the thunderstorm and even tornado that is likely to ruin the festivities. Portend is a helpful way for authors to foreshadow dark events ahead in their stories.
To obtund is to dull or lessen the pain of something. If your senses have been obtunded, you are probably pretty out of it. The verb obtund is rare today, used mainly in medical terminology, and usually in the form of the adjective obtunded. It's been around since about 1400, meaning to make dull or to make less sensitive, and rooted in the Latin obtundere, to blunt or weaken, or literally to beat against..