forbear

UK/fɔːˈbɛə//fɔɹˈbɛɚ/

forbear verb: to keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from. Also the alternative spelling of forebear.

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Verb

forbear (third-person singular simple present forbears, present participle forbearing, simple past forbore, past participle forborne or (archaic) forborn)

(transitive) To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from.
- Mr. Sheriff, I desire that this manacling may be forborn: if you please to clap a guard of a hundred men upon us, I shall pay for it. This is not only a disgrace to me, but in general to all soldiers; which doth more trouble me than the loss of my life.1649, “185. The Trial of Colonel John Morris, Governor of Pontefract Castle; at the Assizes at the Castle of York, before Mr. John Puleston, and Mr. Baron Thorpe, Justices of Assize, for High...
- The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
  the sun forbear to shine1779, John Newton, “Amazing Grace”
(intransitive) To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.
- Por[tia]. I pray you tarrie, pauſe a day or two
  Before you hazard, for in chooſing wrong
  I looſe your companie ; therefore forbeare a while, /[...]c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Then the king of Iſrael gathered the prophets together about foure hundred men, and ſaid vnto them, Shall I goe againſt Ramoth Gilead to battell, or ſhall I forbeare? [...]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 22:6
(intransitive) To refuse; to decline; to withsay; to unheed.
- And thou ſhalt ſpeake my words vnto them, whether they will heare or whether they will forbeare, for they are moſt rebellious.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 2:7
(intransitive) To control oneself when provoked.
- The kindest and the happiest pair
  Will find occasion to forbear.1782, William Cowper, “Mutual Forbearance”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC

Also used as

forbear is also the alternative spelling of forebear.

Forms of forbear

Verb
third-person singular present	forbears
present participle	forbearing
past	forbore
past participle	forborne
past participle (archaic)	forborn
alternative form (obsolete)	forebear
Noun
plural	forbears

Past tense of forbear: forbore

Origin of forbear

From Middle English forberen, from Old English forberan (“to forbear, abstain from, refrain; suffer, endure, tolerate, humor; restrain; do without”), from Proto-Germanic *fraberaną (“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”) (Cimbrian forbèeran), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽 (frabairan, “to endure”).

Words formed from forbear

Words that rhyme with forbear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about forbear

What does forbear mean?: Forbear means to keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from.
What part of speech is forbear?: Forbear is a verb.
How do you pronounce forbear?: Forbear is pronounced /fɔːˈbɛə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of forbear?: The past tense of forbear is forbore.

Words near forbear in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: forbear (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-forbear.ogg, en-au-forbear.ogg.

Cite this entry: “forbear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forbear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.