Sentence:  His name is Praisegod Piepsam , and he is rather fully described as to his clothing and physiognomy in a way which relates him to a sinister type in the author 's repertory - he <WSD>is</WSD> a forerunner of those enigmatic strangers in `` Death in Venice '' , for example , who represent some combination of cadaver , exotic , and psychopomp . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)