Word.ws English Dictionary

forstand

/fə(ɹ)ˈstænd/US/fɚˈstænd/

forstand verb: to stand against; stand in front of so as to bar the way; block; oppose; withstand.

Verb

forstand (third-person singular simple present forstands, present participle forstanding, simple past and past participle forstood)

  1. (transitive) To stand against; stand in front of so as to bar the way; block; oppose; withstand.
    • And ſure, although it was invented to eaſe his mynde of griefe, there be a number of caveats therein to forewarne other young gentlemen to foreſtand with good government their folowing yl fortunes; […]1576, George Whetstone, “The Ortchard of Repentance: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of...
    • "As he would more of them had not wise God, Wierd forstood him, and the man's courage."1849, John Mitchell Kemble, The Saxons in England
  2. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To understand; comprehend.
    • How can I forstand your Professors, when they dinna forstand themselves.1878, Samuel Smiles, Robert Dick: baker, of Thurso, geologist and botanist

Forms of forstand

third-person singular presentforstands
present participleforstanding
past participleforstood
pastforstood
alternative formforestand

Origin of forstand

From Middle English forstanden, from Old English forstandan (“to defend, help, protect, withstand, prevent, hinder, resist, oppose, benefit, avail, understand, signify, be equal to”), from Proto-West Germanic *frastandan (“to understand, oppose”), equivalent to for- + stand. Cognate with West Frisian ferstean (“to understand”), Saterland Frisian ferstounde (“to understand”), Dutch verstaan (“to understand”), German verstehen (“to understand”). Compare also Norwegian Bokmål forstå (“to comprehend, understand”), Swedish förstå (“to comprehend, understand”).

Questions about forstand

What does forstand mean?
Forstand means to stand against; stand in front of so as to bar the way; block; oppose; withstand.
What part of speech is forstand?
Forstand is a verb.
How do you pronounce forstand?
Forstand is pronounced /fə(ɹ)ˈstænd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of forstand?
The past tense of forstand is forstood.

Words near forstand in the dictionary

  1. forstaing
  2. forstall
  3. forstalled
  4. forstalling
  5. forstalls
  6. forstand
  7. forstanding
  8. forstands
  9. forstas
  10. Forstater
  11. Forstaters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forstand (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-forstand.wav.

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