Word.ws English Dictionary

forbids

forbids is the third-person singular simple present indicative of forbid.

Meaning of forbid

Verb

forbid (third-person singular simple present forbids, present participle forbidding, simple past forbade or forbad or (nonstandard) forbidded or forbid, past participle forbidden)

  1. (transitive) To disallow; to proscribe.
    • Smoking in the restaurant is forbidden.
  2. (ditransitive) To deny, exclude from, or warn off, by express command.
    • Have I not forbid her my house?c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. (transitive) To oppose, hinder, or prevent, as if by an effectual command.
    • An impassable river forbids the approach of the army.
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To accurse; to blast.
    • He shall live a man forbid.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To defy; to challenge.
    • What part of "no" do you forbid to understand?

Questions about forbids

What is forbids the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Forbids is the third-person singular simple present indicative of forbid.

Words near forbids in the dictionary

  1. forbiddeth
  2. forbidding
  3. forbiddingly
  4. forbiddingness
  5. forbiddings
  6. forbids
  7. forbite
  8. forbivorous
  9. forblack
  10. forbled
  11. forbleed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forbids (page history and authors); forbid (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.

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