Past tense of forbear
irregular verb
The past tense of forbear is forbore. The past participle is forborne.
Forms of forbear
| Base form (V1) | forbear /fɔːˈbɛə/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | forbore |
| Past participle (V3) | forborne |
| Present participle | forbearing |
| Third person singular | forbears |
Forbore and forborne in a sentence
- Poor Arabs wondered why I had no mare; I forbore to puzzle them by incomprehensible talk of hardening myself, or confess I would rather walk than ride for sparing of animals:1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 170
- Maazel, for his part, gave a focused, dignified reading, and forbore from striking his repertory of conductorial poses until the score’s final page.2009 June 26, Allan Kozinn, “For His Finale, Maazel Musters Mahler’s Army”, in New York Times. From the entry conductorial
Meaning of forbear
- verb To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from.
- verb To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.
- verb To refuse; to decline; to withsay; to unheed.
Verbs like forbear
Questions about the past tense of forbear
- What is the past tense of forbear?
- The past tense of forbear is forbore.
- What is the past participle of forbear?
- The past participle of forbear is forborne.
- Is forbear a regular or irregular verb?
- Forbear is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: forbear (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “Past tense of forbear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/forbear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.