forbear
Americanverb (used with object)
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forbears,
present (3rd person singular)
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forbore,
past
-
forborne,
past participle
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forbearing
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
forbears,
present (3rd person singular)
-
forbore,
past
-
forborne,
past participle
-
forbearing
present participle
-
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
Derived Forms
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forbearernoun
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nonforbearingadjective
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unforbearingadjective
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forbearinglyadverb
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nonforbearinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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forbearsimple
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forbearssimple
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have forborneperfect
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has forborneperfect
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am forbearingprogressive
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are forbearingprogressive
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is forbearingprogressive
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have been forbearingperfect progressive
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has been forbearingperfect progressive
Past
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forboresimple
-
had forborneperfect
-
was forbearingprogressive
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were forbearingprogressive
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had been forbearingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of forbear
First recorded before 900; Middle English forberen, Old English forberan “to refrain from, abstain; spare, excuse”; see origin at for-, bear 1
Explanation
When you forbear, you hold yourself back from doing something. If you're mad at your best friend, you might forbear to return her text messages for a while. If you forbear to giggle during your teacher's stern lecture, that's a good thing. You keep yourself from laughing out loud, even though that's instinctively what you want to do. The Old English root, forberan, means "control one's feelings, or tolerate." A less common way to use forbear is as a noun meaning "ancestor." So if you're refraining from reading about your ancestors, you can say you forbear to learn about your forbears.
Vocabulary lists containing forbear
Romeo and Juliet
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Grade 11, List 6
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The Hobbit
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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:
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
Bellatine and Isaac know nothing of this Russian forbear, having both distanced themselves from their roots.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 27, 2022
"Frankly I do not myself feel at all like my great Tudor forbear."
From Reuters ● Feb. 3, 2022
A scene has just passed of such uncommon interest that, although it is highly probable that these papers may never reach you, yet I cannot forbear recording it.
From "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
Following the trail of these minuscule treasures back in time, Mr. de Waal traced the history of his forbears among the Ephrussis, a Jewish banking family that grew prosperous in the 19th century.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
But for all its forbears, this spooky-ooky 1989-set romance has a thoroughly modern sensibility, and it’s about to be the new obsession of quirky teens everywhere.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2024
According to the British Museum, the Asantehene requested a loan of items of regalia belonging to his forbears.
From BBC ● May 16, 2023
Now, the global transition to fully electric vehicles is littered with startups, inspired by a new era in mobility and drawn by the lower cost of building EVs compared with their fossil-fuel-guzzling forbears.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 8, 2022
Like their forbears, they do their best to survive, even thrive—against all odds.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
These statesmen forbore going to court in part because they doubted the courts would, or should, be open to them.
From Time Magazine Archive
According to Senor Calles, he forbore to act in the hope that the plotters would renounce their treasonable intentions.
From Time Magazine Archive
Suppose the banker put away the check as a weapon, and forbore arresting the clerk because obviously he was clever and had inside information on the market operations of high officials.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet Lawyer Littlepage, to whom Milly was secretary, forbore to dismiss her despite her flippancy, her sullen desire to live her own life regardless of the opinions of others.
From Time Magazine Archive
Out of delicacy, he forbore to tell her that Boots was no longer exactly male.
From "Tiger, Tiger" by Lynne Reid Banks
At Berlin General von Cramon scored the French for bombarding Damascus; told how Feldmarschall von der Goltz had forborne to shell Antwerp Cathedral during the obliterating German bombardments of Rheims, Verdun, Amiens, etc.
From Time Magazine Archive
New York's Mayor Lindsay has wisely forborne forcing the issue with protesters harmlessly occupying a state building site in Harlem.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had forborne, hoping others would forbear, and they had not.
From Time Magazine Archive
I had forborne to grieve my family by the story of my disgrace, nor had it yet been detailed to them by the officious communicativeness of pretended friends.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. 22, March, 1852, Volume 4. by
Greta had forborne to challenge curiosity by absolutely concealing her features.
From The Messenger by Elizabeth Robins
“You know, their story is quite similar to how women in England weren’t allowed to play football for years,” observed Higgins, netting a doubtful reaction from the museum’s forbearing docent.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026
She is, it seems, the forbearing Diana to the Charles-and-Camilla act of Jack and Mary.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 8, 2022
Lubin maintained a forbearing, almost mischievous smile, and in his customary flat tone disputed the assertions one at a time.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 15, 2018
The saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell is a founder of the association, and one of its most graceful, forbearing composers.
From New York Times ● Jun. 30, 2017
The gray-haired man turned his head again toward the girl, perhaps to show her how forbearing, even stoic, his countenance was.
From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger
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.
