forsake
Syllables: for·sake/fɔːˈseɪk/US/fɔɹˈseɪk/
forsake verb: to abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce (someone or something).
Verb
forsake (third-person singular simple present forsakes, present participle forsaking, simple past forsook, past participle forsaken)
- To abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce (someone or something).
- Doeſt thou forſake the deuill and all his workes? / Aunſwere. I forſake them.1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, “Of the Administracion of Publyke Baptisme to be Used in the Churche”, in The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […]...
- Such hazard now muſt doting Tarqvin make, / Pawning his honor to obtaine his luſt, / And for himſelfe, himſelfe he muſt forſake.1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC
- To decline or refuse (something offered).
- The youthful Bull muſt wander in the Wood; / Behind the Mountain, or beyond the Flood: / [...] / With two fair Eyes his Miſtreſs burns his Breaſt; / He looks and languiſhes, and leaves his Reſt; / Forſakes his Food, and pining for the Laſs, / Is joyleſs of the Grove, and ſpurns the growing Graſs.1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 106, lines...
- To avoid or shun (someone or something).
- This was that Pascall lambe [i.e., Jesus] whose loue for vs so stood, / That on the mount of Caluerie, for vs did shed his blood: / Where hanging on the Crosse, no shame he did forsake, / Till death giuen him by pearcing speare, an ende of life did make.1878, Thomas Tusser, “The Authors Beleefe”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam]...
- To cause disappointment to; to be insufficient for (someone or something).
- Theſe birds, on the continent of America, continue to flutter the year round; as their food, which is the honey of flowers, never forſakes them in thoſe warm latitudes where they are found.1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Humming-bird, and Its Varieties”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume V, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John]...
forsake meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
forsake in Tamil
- கைவிடு, துற, நீக்கு, புறக்கணி, விட்டுவிடு, விலக்கு
forsake in Urdu
- to forsake
- چھوڑنا choṛnā
forsake in Bengali
- পরিত্যাগ করা, বর্জন করা, ছেড়ে যাওয়া
forsake in Malayalam
- desert, abandon, leave
- കെെവിടുക, കെെവെടിയുക, ത്യജിക്ക, പാടെ ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുക, പരിത്യജിക്കുക, വിട്ടുകളയുക
- relinquish, renounce, abandon
- ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുക, തള്ളിക്കളയുക, പരിവർജ്ജിക്കുക, വേണ്ടെന്നുവയ്ക്കുക, വിട്ടുകളയുക, തള്ളുക
More languagesFewer languages
- forsake in Kannada
- ಬಿಟ್ಟುಬಿಡು, ಪರಿತ್ಯಜಿಸು, ಕೈಬಿಡು, ತೊರೆದುಬಿಡು
- forsake in Gujarati
- વામવું vāmvũ
- forsake in Odia
- ତୁଟିବା tuṭibā
- forsake in Sanskrit
- उज्झ् ujjh, हिनोति hinóti
- forsake in Arabic
- هَجَرَ hajara
- forsake in Indonesian
- menelantarkan
Examples of forsake in a sentence
- Thou lou'd the Church once, and didſt God adore, / But now forſakest him, thou lou'd before.1611, Richard Brathwayte [i.e., Richard Brathwait], “The Third Sonet”, in The Golden Fleece. […], London: […] W[illiam] S[tansby] for...
- And about the ninth houre, Jeſus cried with a loud voyce, ſaying, Eli, Eli, lamaſabachthani, that is to ſay, My God, my God, why haſt thou forſaken mee?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 27:46, column 1:
- He is forſaken of the world, his kinfolk, friends, and acquaintance; his owne members and ſenſes faile him; yea, hee forſaketh (as it were) himſelfe, in that the very vſe of reaſon forſaketh him.1617, John Moore, “Of the Miserable Life, and Wretched State of Man, by the Meanes of Sinne and Death”, in A Mappe of Mans Mortalitie. […]...
- To ABANDON [...] to forſake utterly, to caſt off; to give up ones ſelf wholly to any prevailing Paſſion or Vice.1726, N[athan] Bailey, “To ABANDON”, in An Universal Etymological English Dictionary: […], 3rd edition, London: […] J. Darby, […], →OCLC:
Forms of forsake
| third-person singular present | forsakes |
|---|---|
| present participle | forsaking |
| past | forsook |
| past participle | forsaken |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | forsakest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | forsookest |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | forsaketh |
Origin of forsake
From Middle English forsaken (“to abandon, desert, repudiate, withdraw allegiance from”), from Old English forsacan (“to oppose; to give up, renounce; to decline, refuse”), from Proto-West Germanic *frasakan (“to forsake, renounce”). By surface analysis, for- + sake. Cognates include Saterland Frisian ferseeke (“to deny, refuse”), West Frisian fersaakje, Dutch verzaken (“to renounce, forsake”), Middle High German versachen (“to deny”), Danish forsage (“to give up”), Swedish försaka (“to be without, give up”), Norwegian forsake (“to give up, renounce”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌰𐌽 (sakan, “to quarrel; to rebuke”), .
Words formed from forsake
Words that rhyme with forsake
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- flake
- slake
- stake
- wake
- sheikh
- strake
- betake
- mosaic
- blake
- fake
- jake
- opaque
- lake
- mistake
- raik
- retake
- sake
- claik
- hake
- partake
- quake
- Spirit Lake
- steak
- ache
- remake
- spake
- tea break
- wrake
- ake
- alphamosaic
- ashake
- Choctaw Lake
- crake
- Deer Lake
- demake
- eastern green drake
- glass snake
- laik
- moonquake
- Mud Lake
- nake
- overtake
- parliament cake
- prison break
- radiopaque
- rattlesnake
- reshake
- sodaic
Questions about forsake
- What does forsake mean?
- Forsake means to abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce (someone or something).
- What is forsake in Tamil?
- Forsake in Tamil is கைவிடு, துற, நீக்கு. See Forsake meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use forsake in a sentence?
- Thou lou'd the Church once, and didſt God adore, / But now forſakest him, thou lou'd before.
- What part of speech is forsake?
- Forsake is a verb.
- How do you pronounce forsake?
- Forsake is pronounced /fɔːˈseɪk/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of forsake?
- The past tense of forsake is forsook.
Words near forsake in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: forsake (page history and authors); forsake (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); چھوڑنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); Forsake (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); forsake (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); forsake (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); વામવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ତୁଟିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); उज्झ् (Sanskrit) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-forsake.wav.
Cite this entry: “forsake.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forsake. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.