Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon.
- v. To renounce anger or resentment against.
- v. To absolve from payment of (a debt, for example).
- v. To accord forgiveness.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To give up; resign.
- To give; grant.
- To grant free pardon for or remission of, as a wrongful act or an obligation; give up all claims for or on account of: sometimes with the thing forgiven as direct objective (accusative), preceded by the person as indirect objective (dative): as, to forgive an injury; to forgive a person his debts.
- To grant free pardon to; cease to blame or feel resentment against; restore to good will.
- Synonyms To pass over, overlook.
- Pardon, Forgive (see pardon); to excuse, let off.
- To exercise forgiveness; be lenient or forgiving.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To pardon, to waive any negative feeling or desire for punishment.
- v. intransitive To accord forgiveness.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To give wholly; to make over without reservation; to resign.
- v. To give up resentment or claim to requital on account of (an offense or wrong); to remit the penalty of; to pardon; -- said in reference to the act forgiven.
- v. To cease to feel resentment against, on account of wrong committed; to give up claim to requital from or retribution upon (an offender); to absolve; to pardon; -- said of the person offending.
WordNet 3.0
- v. absolve from payment
- v. stop blaming or grant forgiveness
Etymologies
- Middle English forgiven ("to forgive"), from Old English forġiefan ("to forgive, give up, provide"), corresponding to for- + give. Cognate with Dutch vergeven, German vergeben. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English forgiven, from Old English forgiefan. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Her eyesshe knew meshe smiledshe whisperedforgive me, Curt, forgive herwhen it was I who should have said forgive mebut before I couldshe [He falters brokenly.] 166”
“Charity came with such power that her commands actually overruled in many instances the feeble claims of Justice, so that she bade men henceforward to forgive, for example, not merely according to Justice, but according to her own Divine nature, to _forgive unto seventy times seven_, to give _good measure, heaped up and running over_, and not the bare minimum which men had merely earned.”
“When you really look at the word "forgive" it means: to stop feeling angry or resentful toward.”
The Huffington Post: Jennifer Lauck: Forgive the Unforgivable. How?
“To forgive is good, of course to do that he would have to admit he was wrong.”
“The only cheater I am willing to forgive is Eliot Spitzer (of course I'm not married to him) – he was energetic, driven, strong and very smart!”
“To forgive is the ultimate grace and is in the best tradition of Jesus who taught to turn the other cheek.”
Think Progress » Van Jones to Glenn Beck: ‘I see you, and I love you, brother.’ (Updated)
“What they will not forgive is a ‘perfect’ book, but the story falls flat.”
“In an ancient tale from the Kaballah, God told some angels in training that the capacity to forgive is the most excellent gift in the human experience, more essential to the continuity of life than the courage to sacrifice your own life for someone else or enduring the pain of giving life.”
The Huffington Post: Wendy Strgar: The Truth About Forgiveness
“In Sicily it doesn't matter about doing things well or badly; the sin which we Sicilians never forgive is simply that of' doing 'at all ... novelties attract us only when they are dead, incapable of arousing vital currents.”
“The one thing I cannot forgive is Hillary's 3 a.m. "commercial.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘forgive’.
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Words Associated With Jesus
Words that indentify Jesus and His Salvation to those who seek Him.
hope, grace, love, faith, salvation, truth, eternity, heaven, god, holy spirit, bible, scripture and 191 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...grow, greatest country, greatest, grow the economy, great nation, great decisions, great, government, great NATIONAL su..., good times, good job, good and generous... and 751 more...
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Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
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SCIE - game theory
pure game, mixed game, general game, Brower's fixed point, Lemke-Howson algo..., Nash equilibrium, zero sum, Sperner's lemma, Borsuk-Ulam theorem, ham sandwich cut, auction, bidder and 33 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Samme's Words
soliloquy, meander, creativity, magic, discovery, happiness, empowerment, abundance, [magnificent], iridescent, artistic, magical and 694 more...
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What a concept
surrender, submit, yield, self-sacrifice, relent, capitulate, compromise, accommodate, commiserate, forgive, placate, give and 94 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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MEC3 Lesson 138
palm reader, mystical, stay away, toothless, one-armed, fatten, Rolex, Waikiki, bury, nuptials, Ponderosa, frown and 34 more...
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"letting go" words
words from the IE root orbh- and others words that change allegiance
orphan, robot, let, liege, allegiance, late, later, last, lassitude, alas, lenient, lenis and 41 more...
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to do list
pray, think, wonder, sleep, garden, walk, run, rest, read, hope, visualize, write and 12 more...
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the things that you do
relate, immure, resemble, brighten, lighten, darken, magnify, anticipate, illuminate, fly, hesitate, accept and 74 more...
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love
love love love
sleepless, dreams, restless, heartache, liebe, feelings, thoughts, death, lifeless, sad, sadness, pain and 45 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for forgive.
lampbane Giles: "To forgive is an act of compassion, Buffy. It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it."
Sep 12, 2008