forbear
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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to refrain; hold back.
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to be patient or self-controlled when subject to annoyance or provocation.
verb
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to cease or refrain (from doing something)
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archaic to tolerate or endure (misbehaviour, mistakes, etc)
noun
Other Word Forms
- forbearer noun
- forbearingly adverb
- nonforbearing adjective
- nonforbearingly adverb
- unforbearing adjective
Etymology
Origin of forbear
First recorded before 900; Middle English forberen, Old English forberan “to refrain from, abstain; spare, excuse”; for-, bear 1
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.
If the real Queen Charlotte could claim any African cultural lineage, it would have come from a distant Portuguese forbear.
From Salon • May 6, 2023
Three decades ago, Likud, then a more traditional conservative party, shunned Mr. Ben-Gvir’s ideological forbear, Meir Kahane, for being too extreme.
From New York Times • Oct. 24, 2022
"Frankly I do not myself feel at all like my great Tudor forbear."
From Reuters • Feb. 3, 2022
Respondent argues that there is no immediate threat of future harm, because he has and will continue to exercise personal discipline to forbear from discussing these matters in public anymore.
From Slate • Jun. 24, 2021
I told him to forbear question or remark; I desired him to leave me: I must and would be alone.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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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.