forgive
Americanverb (used with object)
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forgives,
present (3rd person singular)
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forgave,
past
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forgiven,
past participle
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forgiving
present participle
-
to grant pardon for or remission of (an offense, debt, etc.); absolve.
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to give up all claim on account of; remit (a debt, obligation, etc.).
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to grant pardon to (a person).
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to cease to feel resentment against.
to forgive one's enemies.
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to cancel an indebtedness or liability of.
to forgive the interest owed on a loan.
verb (used without object)
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forgives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
forgave,
past
-
forgiven,
past participle
-
forgiving
present participle
verb
-
to cease to blame or hold resentment against (someone or something)
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to grant pardon for (a mistake, wrongdoing, etc)
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(tr) to free or pardon (someone) from penalty
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(tr) to free from the obligation of (a debt, payment, etc)
Synonym Usage
See excuse.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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forgivernoun
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unforgivablenessnoun
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preforgiveverb (used with object)
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forgivableadjective
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half-forgivenadjective
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unforgivableadjective
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unforgivenadjective
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forgivablyadverb
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unforgivablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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forgivesimple
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forgivessimple
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have forgivenperfect
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has forgivenperfect
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am forgivingprogressive
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are forgivingprogressive
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is forgivingprogressive
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have been forgivingperfect progressive
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has been forgivingperfect progressive
Past
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forgavesimple
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had forgivenperfect
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was forgivingprogressive
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were forgivingprogressive
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had been forgivingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of forgive
First recorded before 900; for- + give; replacing Middle English foryiven, Old English forgiefan
Explanation
If you forgive someone, you stop blaming him. You should really forgive your kid sister for eating the rest of the cake. Forgive comes from the Old English forgiefan, which also means "forgive," just with cooler spelling. When you forgive someone or something, that's the end of the story. Eventually, you will have to either forgive your friend for stealing your boyfriend, or stop being her friend. Loans can also be forgiven. If your credit card company forgives your debt, that means you no longer have to pay it.
Vocabulary lists containing forgive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Watching the stop-motion monsters climb over ruined walls to poke at Greece’s elite soldiers, it’s easy to forgive the movie for its less-than-stellar dubbing or borderline nonsensical love story.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026
Patrick Clancy has asked the public to forgive his ex-wife, saying the woman portrayed in media reports isn’t the person he knew.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
But she’s chosen to forgive Bustillos, Gonzalez said, because she kept thinking of him as “a kid” and could tell that he was devastated by his actions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
"Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book," he told the BBC.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
“We should go home and ask her to forgive us,” Velia whispered, hanging her head.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
About 50% of borrowers moved into the IBR plan, an older plan that caps monthly payments at 10% or 15% of discretionary income and forgives remaining balances after 20 or 25 years of payments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
There is also a program for public-service employees like teachers that forgives any remaining balance after 10 years.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 30, 2026
In their final exchange, Serena apologizes for what she’s done and June forgives her.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2025
There's something magnanimous about the way Bon forgives his friend without condition, or because he knows that what they've gone through forces people to say things and think things when they know better.
From Salon ● May 27, 2024
And it struck me, too, that no one 'Curtis Bok, Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, speech at Radcliffe College Commencement, 1960. there forgets, no one there forgives.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
After the protests, Modi urged Indians not to harass “misguided” youth and said he forgave people who had used vulgar language against him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Linda Hoy said Complainant B cried at the meeting when she said she forgave Sir Jeffrey.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
The speech was exploitative, but not demeaning, and the public forgave Nixon.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
In response, Battle’s daughter not only forgave Burton, but has become an active advocate for his clemency.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2026
His brother and Draupadi even forgave Arjuna when he explained that he just had to get his bow and arrow.
From "Aru Shah and the End of Time" by Roshani Chokshi
Show up on a Wednesday night and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the middle of a busy Saturday.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
All will be forgiven if Allen delivers, reverses all those decades of bad juju and hoists the Lombardi hood ornament into the sky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Such poetic license offers little new insight into a topic that has already been picked over for two decades, but it might be forgiven were Hansen as easily dramatized as he is made fun of.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
Graham Staines' widow, Gladys, who stayed on in India with her daughter Esther until July 2004, said she had "forgiven" Dara Singh in the Christian spirit.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
People had probably forgiven her for all kinds of things, but I doubted she'd get much sympathy out of Patrick.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Courts are sometimes more forgiving of burdens on speech when the real focus of a law is conduct, and when any restriction on speech is minor and incidental.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026
Nancy wasn’t as forgiving of her husband’s critics as Henry was.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
She said the camp teaches children about forgiveness, so she and her husband put that lesson into practice by forgiving the people who took the trailer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Toast is forgiving of this kind of thinking.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
I pray that you are strong but forgiving, that you are resilient but hopeful, and that you are kind but nobody's fool.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
