forestay
forestay noun: a stay that extends from the top of the foremast to the bow or bowsprit of a sailing ship.
Noun
forestay (plural forestays)
Verb (1)
forestay (third-person singular simple present forestays, present participle forestaying, simple past and past participle forestayed)
Verb (2)
forestay (third-person singular simple present forestays, present participle forestaying, simple past and past participle forestayed)
- To stay, delay, postpone, or hinder beforehand; forestall; prevent.
- It is reasonable to suppose that further research into the complex bio-chemistry of the blood will result in more satisfactory substitutes for plasma than are now available and thereby death may be more easily forestayed.1954, Osteopathic Magazine - Volumes 41-42 - Page 75
- [...] in our capital construction plan, we might not plan the manufacture of equipment according to storage, thus delaying the sale of our manufactured equipment and forestaying return on investment by equipment manufacturing agencies.1965, United States Joint Publications Research Service, Translations on People's Republic of China
Synonyms of forestay
Forms of forestay
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | forestays |
| alternative form | forstay |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | forestays |
| present participle | forestaying |
| past participle | forestayed |
| past | forestayed |
Origin of forestay
From Middle English forstay, forstey, vorstey, equivalent to fore- + stay (“a stay, rope”).
From fore- + stay (“to hold off, postpone, delay”).
Words formed from forestay
Questions about forestay
- What does forestay mean?
- Forestay means a stay that extends from the top of the foremast to the bow or bowsprit of a sailing ship.
- What part of speech is forestay?
- Forestay can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of forestay?
- The plural of forestay is forestays.
Words near forestay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: forestay (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:
Cite this entry: “forestay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forestay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.