Word.ws English Dictionary

forgive and forget

forgive and forget verb: to absolve somebody completely for a past wrongdoing; to pardon with neither resentment nor a view to retribution.

Verb

forgive and forget (third-person singular simple present forgives and forgets, present participle forgiving and forgetting, simple past forgave and forgot, past participle forgiven and forgotten)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To absolve somebody completely for a past wrongdoing; to pardon with neither resentment nor a view to retribution.
    • "We will go away in the yacht. Does it matter where we live, so long as we live for each other? Forgive and forget! Oh, Valeria, Valeria, forgive and forget!"1875, Wilkie Collins, The law and the lady, page 33
    • 'Not long before he died, the old man disowned him. Then a year and a half ago mom forgave and forgot.'2002, Jack Womack, Going, Going, Gone, page 73

forgive and forget meaning in Arabic

forgive and forget in Arabic

pardon without resentment
غَفَرَ وَنَسِيَ ḡafara wanasiya

Forms of forgive and forget

third-person singular presentforgives and forgets
present participleforgiving and forgetting
pastforgave and forgot
past participleforgiven and forgotten

Questions about forgive and forget

What does forgive and forget mean?
Forgive and forget means to absolve somebody completely for a past wrongdoing; to pardon with neither resentment nor a view to retribution.
What is forgive and forget in Arabic?
Forgive and forget in Arabic is غَفَرَ وَنَسِيَ (ḡafara wanasiya). See Forgive and forget meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is forgive and forget?
Forgive and forget is a verb.
What is the past tense of forgive and forget?
The past tense of forgive and forget is forgave and forgot.

Words near forgive and forget in the dictionary

  1. forgivability
  2. forgivable
  3. forgivableness
  4. forgivably
  5. forgive
  6. forgive and forget
  7. forgive but don't forget
  8. forgive my French
  9. forgiveable
  10. forgived
  11. forgiveless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forgive and forget (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-forgive and forget.ogg.

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