Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To refrain from; resist: forbear replying. See Synonyms at refrain1.
- v. To desist from; cease.
- v. Obsolete To avoid or shun.
- v. To hold back; refrain.
- v. To be tolerant or patient in the face of provocation.
- n. Variant of forebear.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To refrain from; abstain from; omit; avoid the doing or use of.
- To spare; excuse; treat indulgently.
- To refrain; abstain; decline; stop; cease; hold off or back.
- To be patient; endure; restrain one's self from action or from violence.
- Synonyms To abstain, give over, desist, stay, leave off.
- n. See forebear.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.
- v. intransitive To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.
- v. intransitive To refuse; to decline; to give no heed.
- v. intransitive To control oneself when provoked.
- n. alternative spelling of forebear.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Scot. An ancestor; a forefather; -- usually in the plural.
- v. To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.
- v. To refuse; to decline; to give no heed.
- v. To control one's self when provoked.
- v. To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.
- v. To treat with consideration or indulgence.
- v. obsolete To cease from bearing.
WordNet 3.0
- v. refrain from doing
- n. a person from whom you are descended
- v. resist doing something
Etymologies
- From Middle English forberen, from Old English forberan ("to forbear, abstain from, refrain; suffer, endure, tolerate, humor; restrain; do without"), from Proto-Germanic *fraberanan (“to hold back, endure”), equivalent to for- + bear. Cognate with Old Frisian forbera ("to forfeit"), Middle High German verbërn ("to have not; abstain; refrain from; avoid"), Gothic (frabairan, "to endure"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English forberen, from Old English forberan, to endure; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word forbear comes from the Middle English forberen, thence from the Old English forberan, both meaning to endure or to get through something, and to do so with grace and dignity.”
“If they thought it of value, they were to pay him accordingly; if not, they were to "forbear" -- that is, to give nothing.”
“-- I wept for a dear warrior once; and did the sword forbear so just a heart?”
“Besides, this will teach him to forbear, which is an habit of greatest use for health of body and mind too.”
“In Jehovahs name forbear; cried a shrill, but clear and melodious voice.”
“Under Genachowski's proposal, the FCC would apply only a small fraction of Title II's rules and exempt, or "forbear," those irrelevant to Internet access.”
The Washington Post: FCC chair outlines regulatory foundation for broadband providers
“Applying the rule of thumb to the obscure word "forbear," how many reasons are there for the FCC to reject the deregulation petitions?”
“In this case, Verizon has asked the FCC to "forbear" from regulating some of the services it provides in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence and Virginia Beach.”
“Could she speak pleasantly to her aunt? could she even look pleasantly at her? could she "forbear" all unkindness, even in thought?”
“But the agency would "forbear" against using many of the Communications Act's common carrier rules, particularly those that empower the government to regulate prices.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘forbear’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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EN - confusables
Similar words meaning different things
torturous, wreathe, tortuous, wreath, titivate, titillate, stationary, storey, septic, principal, principle, story and 134 more...
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EN - archaic words
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 328 more...
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 160 more...
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Amalgamations
Words that have been smashed together.
keystone, touchstone, footprint, thunderhead, seesaw, textbook, leftovers, watchword, afterbirth, fieldwork, outcast, statesman and 148 more...
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Magoosh GRE
its a list of words borrowed from Magoosh GRE blog ,an indispensable resource for GRE test takers.
inimitable, exiguity, myriad, cornucopia, surfeit, glut, deluge, opaque, pellucid, grandiloquent, turgid, gadfly and 106 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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CCW
Commonly Confused Words
wreath, wreathe, titillate, titivate, proscribe, prescribe, pedal, peddle, mettle, metal, palette, palate and 132 more...
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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words
diplopic, dolorous, farrago, surety, scuttlebutt, Arabesque, infarct, neurasthenia, lambent, expurge, univocal, simper and 395 more...
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MS GRE
churlish, feign, dissembler, martinet, cosmopolitan, polyglot, aplomb, hack, whit, berate, ebullient, morose and 173 more...
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ephduke's Words
ephemeral, obfuscation, defenestration, mastication, expectorate, prolix, apopleptic, acarpous, abrogate, accretion, admonitory, alacrity and 165 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for forbear.
madmouth Forbear to taste
Library paste
-The Eclectic Abecedarium Jun 7, 2009