Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To renounce or repudiate under oath.
- v. To renounce seriously.
- v. To disavow under oath; deny.
- v. To make (oneself) guilty of perjury.
- v. To swear falsely; commit perjury.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To reject or renounce upon oath; renounce earnestly, determinedly, or with protestations; abjure.
- To deny upon oath or with strong asseveration.
- Synonyms Renounce, Recant, Abjure, etc. See renounce. For forswear one's self, see perjure.
- To swearfalsely; commit perjury.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To renounce or deny something, especially under oath.
- v. intransitive To commit perjury.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To reject or renounce upon oath; hence, to renounce earnestly, determinedly, or with protestations.
- v. To deny upon oath.
- v. To swear falsely; to commit perjury.
WordNet 3.0
- v. formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure
Etymologies
- Middle English forsweren, from Old English forswerian ("to swear falsely"). More at for- + swear. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English forsweren, from Old English forswerian : for-, wrongly; see for- + swerian, to swear; see swear. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“If bent on wilful aims and lewd I fain forswear thee, ah!”
“The word forswear has appeared in 15 Times articles over the past year, including in a March 14, 2010”
“By those laws, men were forbid to perjure themselves, or to forswear, that is, swear falsely.”
“The questionnaires also asked the American citizens whether they were willing to "forswear" allegiance to the Emperor of Japan (an allegiance they had never sworn in the first place) and whether they were willing to serve on combat duty in the U.S. armed forces "wherever ordered.”
“He must exhibit "humility of spirit," forswear "vengeance" on his political enemies and, MacDonald adds, "accept whatever justice is necessary to resolve the sin.”
“The grim little smile upon her lips when one big girl above Ruth went down before "forswear," spelling it with an extra "e," showed that the teacher considered the miss deserved to fail because of her heedlessness.”
“Thus they relate to the word "forswear," in the first.”
“forswear," they must relate to perjury, and if to perjury, then to a civil oath, or to an oath, where an appeal is made to God by man, as to something relating to himself.”
“In return, Islamabad must forswear its use of terrorism to weaken India and stop expecting independent Afghanistan to act as a vassal.”
“In return, Islamabad must forswear its use of terrorism to weaken India, and stop expecting independent Afghanistan to act as a vassal.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘forswear’.
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 315 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Shakespeare.05
vaulting, dismal, gory, malice, summons, commend, forswear, dwindle, avarice, pristine, adage, predominance and 2 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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jaradgiese's Words
paronomasia, ostensible, insouciant, sobriquet, burlesque, insalubrious, apotheosis, hyperbole, connubial, felicity, florid, conurbation and 642 more...
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What Do You Mean $
ahh these hurt.....
hermit, prone, maxim, guise, solvenly, lurid, lax, amiable, irate, cloister, mediate, nettle and 100 more...
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play words
words for a play
pert, vicissitude, melancholy, vexation, gaud, attestation, renunciation, wax, wrought, sunder, antipodes, reckoning and 236 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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Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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conglomeration
wherewithal, wan, zoonotic, zoonosis, nebulous, nefarious, nascent, quiescent, quell, undercroft, unwitting, unutterable and 658 more...
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