Word.ws English Dictionary

forhow

forhow verb: to despise; scorn.

Verb

forhow (third-person singular simple present forhows, present participle forhowing, simple past and past participle forhowed)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To despise; scorn.
  2. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, transitive) To forsake; quit; abandon; desert.
    • It was believed that handling any bird's eggs in the nest made the bird forhooie them, [...]1881, Gregor, Elk-Lore
  3. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, transitive) To cast off; scorn.
    • Mind what this lass has undergane for you, Since ye did her so treach'rously forhow, [...]1768, Ross, Hclenort

Forms of forhow

third-person singular presentforhows
present participleforhowing
past participleforhowed
pastforhowed
alternative formforhoo
alternative formforhooie
alternative formforhooy
alternative formforhui
alternative formfurhow

Origin of forhow

From Middle English forhowien, from Old English forhogian (“to neglect, disregard, despise”), equivalent to for- + how. Cognate with Old Saxon farhuggjan, Old High German farhuggan.

Questions about forhow

What does forhow mean?
Forhow means to despise; scorn.
What part of speech is forhow?
Forhow is a verb.
What is the past tense of forhow?
The past tense of forhow is forhowed.

Words near forhow in the dictionary

  1. forhills
  2. forhold
  3. forholden
  4. forholding
  5. forholds
  6. forhow
  7. forhowed
  8. forhowing
  9. forhows
  10. forhungered
  11. forhush

Source and license

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