Word.ws English Dictionary

forslow

forslow verb: to be dilatory about; put off; postpone; neglect; omit.

Verb

forslow (third-person singular simple present forslows, present participle forslowing, simple past and past participle forslowed)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To be dilatory about; put off; postpone; neglect; omit.
    • [I]f you can thinke vpon any preſent meanes for his deliuerie, doe not forſlow it.1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii...
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To delay; hinder; impede; obstruct.
    • But by no meanes my way I would forslow / For ought that ever she could doe or say […]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • The wond'ring Nereids, though they rais'd no storm, / Foreslow'd her passage, to behold her form.1682, John Dryden, Epistles, section XIII
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be slow or dilatory; loiter.
    • Foreslow no longer, make we hence amaine.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

Forms of forslow

third-person singular presentforslows
present participleforslowing
past participleforslowed
pastforslowed
alternative formforsloe
alternative formforeslow
alternative formfore-slow

Origin of forslow

From Middle English forslowen, forslewen (“to neglect”), from Old English forslāwian, forslǣwan (“to be slow, unwilling, delay, put off”), equivalent to for- + slow.

Questions about forslow

What does forslow mean?
Forslow means to be dilatory about; put off; postpone; neglect; omit.
What part of speech is forslow?
Forslow is a verb.
What is the past tense of forslow?
The past tense of forslow is forslowed.

Words near forslow in the dictionary

  1. forslong
  2. forslongen
  3. forsloth
  4. forslothed
  5. forslothing
  6. forslow
  7. forslowed
  8. forslowing
  9. forslows
  10. forslug
  11. forslugging

Source and license

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