Word.ws English Dictionary

forburn

forburn verb: to destroy or damage by burning.

Verb

forburn (third-person singular simple present forburns, present participle forburning, simple past and past participle forburned or forburnt)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To destroy or damage by burning.
    • [He] sent then a host thither and bade slay all the town-ship, and forburn the town.1852, Alfred (King of England), The whole works of King Alfred the Great
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To burn; to be consumed by fire.

Synonyms of forburn

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of forburn

third-person singular presentforburns
present participleforburning
past participleforburned
pastforburned
past participleforburnt
pastforburnt

Origin of forburn

From Middle English forburnen, forbrinnen, from Old English forbirnan (intransitive) and forbærnan (transitive), equivalent to for- + burn. Cognate with Saterland Frisian ferbaadenje, ferbaanje (“to burn up”), West Frisian ferbarne (“to burn up”), German Low German verbrannen (“to burn up”), German verbrennen (“to burn up, incinerate”).

Questions about forburn

What does forburn mean?
Forburn means to destroy or damage by burning.
What part of speech is forburn?
Forburn is a verb.
What is the past tense of forburn?
The past tense of forburn is forburned.

Words near forburn in the dictionary

  1. forbreaking
  2. forbreaks
  3. forbroke
  4. forbroken
  5. forbs
  6. forburn
  7. forburned
  8. forburning
  9. forburns
  10. forburnt
  11. forburst

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forburn (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: “forburn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forburn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.