Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To precede, as in time or place.
- v. Variant of forgo.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To quit; to relinquish; to leave.
- v. To relinquish the enjoyment or advantage of; to give up; to resign; to renounce; -- said of a thing already enjoyed, or of one within reach, or anticipated.
- v. To go before; to precede; -- used especially in the present and past participles.
WordNet 3.0
- v. do without or cease to hold or adhere to
- v. lose (s.th.) or lose the right to (s.th.) by some error, offense, or crime
- v. be earlier in time; go back further
Etymologies
- See forgo (Wiktionary)
- Middle English foregon, from Old English foregān : fore-, fore- + gān, go; see ghē- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“To forego means “to go before” – the matching fore in forego and before is a handy way to remember the correct form:”
“An overlap complicates things slightly: forego is a variant spelling of forgo (“abstain, renounce, do without”) but the reverse is not the case, so avoiding this variation will help retain a useful distinction.”
“Contemplatives, in short, forego many transient pleasures, many satisfactions sweet to nature, all that the world holds most dear; but they gain in return a liberty for the soul which enables it to rise without hindrance to the thought and love of God.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery
“I prefer to see "forego" used in the sense of "precede," e.g.,”
“It grates on me every time I see "forego" used in place of "forgo" (to do without).”
“But "forego" (as distinct from foregoing) is almost always wrong.”
“At the time these cuts were announced, at least one member of the Office of the Publisher stated in an e-mail that all three would "forego" bonuses.”
“To answer "A's" question, yes, I'd gladly opt out of Social Security and forego any benefits instead of throwing about over 13% of my earnings on a failed system.”
“In proof of his vocation, he must even forego the happiness of family life, if he were to receive the formal religious sanction.”
““Thinking Outside the Box” – This basically means “We built this multi-million dollar business based on certain methods, but we want you to forego all those methods and come up with your own ideas.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘forego’.
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
replete, steeped, eminent, indiscriminate, voracious, automaton, prognosticate, technology, abound, matron, tinge, compound and 297 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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Morte d'Arthur.03
besiege, reverence, arrayed, aught, behoves, unscathed, defy, loth, upbraided, prevail, encamped, garrison and 5 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Fore!
That great old English prefix, quaint almost by default!
foredoom, forename, foretoken, foremast, forebear, foresee, forecastle, forestay, foreskin, foretell, foreshadow, foreclose and 79 more...
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hard to sense
somewhat, somewhere, elsewhere, whereby, likewise, spite, ever, along, otherwise, whatever, whichever, hitherto and 116 more...
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Eazy E
motley, callous, languid, copious, dubious, contemptible, disparage, sporadic, gratuitous, disillusioned, conflagration, concordance and 99 more...
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Reading Random
Got unknown words randomly
delinquency, modicum, dissuade, incendiary, destitute, lachrymose, plight, ruse, empirical, pedantic, demography, giggle and 444 more...
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Least Favorites
choicest, sassafras, vomit, amorous, testes, agrarian, egregious, lactate, pus, crotchety, cul-de-sac, precipice and 74 more...
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Nabokov's Lolita
words I learned during reading Lolita
etiolated, platitudinous, obscene, philistine, qualms, lavish, prude, forego, ineptly, unswervingly, tempest, demented and 38 more...
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Doug and Paul's Everyday Words
Words a friend and I actually use in common parlance, much to the astonishment of all, and sometimes ourselves.
wherewithal, whereas, ukase, turgid, transmogrify, thereby, summarily, regale, proclivities, prescient, perusal, permutations and 21 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for forego.
madmouth one wonders when and why this variant (and it is legitimately listed by M-W as a variant) arose, as the etymology puts 'forgo' down as for- and go, sans 'e'.
you've got a bit of The Duchess in your prose style, qroqqa. Jun 20, 2009
bilby *weeps* Jun 19, 2009
qroqqa To be prescriptive about spelling, which I occasionally am, this word should never be seen except in the expression foregone conclusion (and possibly the foregoing).
'Why is that?' <-- READER'S VOICE
Because, amiable reader, we have a perfectly good spelling distinction between fore- with a literal or metaphorical meaning of "before" in space or time (forecourt, forequarters, forehead, foreground; forethought, foreordain, foreshadow) and the different prefix for- with an obscure meaning vaguely like "completely" or "off, away"—and to forgo is to do without, to forbear is to put up with; whereas a forebear is one born before. In actual usage this distinction is mostly adhered to. Less tears would be shed by the meaner kind of spellers if we kept piously to it. Jun 19, 2009