Word.ws English Dictionary

forgive but don't forget

forgive but don't forget verb: to pardon someone of wrongdoing while retaining awareness of their past behavior to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

Verb

forgive but don't forget

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To pardon someone of wrongdoing while retaining awareness of their past behavior to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
    • 'Forgive, forget,' we're wisely told, Is held a maxim good and old; But half the maxim's better yet,– THEN OH FORGIVE–BUT DON'T FORGET1841, Samuel Lover, Roberts' Semi-Monthly Magazine, volume 1, number 1, page 8
    • Amanda feels strongly that it is necessary "to forgive, but don't forget. Don't forget what happened to you, but it's in the past, just leave it."2021, Nadine E. Dolby, Constructing Race: Youth, Identity, and Popular Culture in South Africa, page 101

Origin of forgive but don't forget

In reference to the phrase forgive and forget.

Questions about forgive but don't forget

What does forgive but don't forget mean?
Forgive but don't forget means to pardon someone of wrongdoing while retaining awareness of their past behavior to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
What part of speech is forgive but don't forget?
Forgive but don't forget is a verb.

Words near forgive but don't forget in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forgive but don't 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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