forbear
Americanverb (used with object)
-
forbears,
present (3rd person singular)
-
forbore,
past
-
forborne,
past participle
-
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
-
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
-
forboresimple
-
had forborneperfect
-
was forbearingprogressive
-
were forbearingprogressive
-
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
But if “Cabinet of Curiosities” has a spiritual forbear, it is someone more sinister.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 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
We could not forbear looking backwards, across Milford Haven.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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
In a flashback, Lucia explains to Amelia that her forbears were Spanish and Apache, making the young woman’s English heritage a challenge to the status quo.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2025
In the way of his forbears, Gibson uses beads sourced from all over the world, including vintage beads from Japan and China, and glass beads from the Venetian island of Murano.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2024
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
Like their forbears, they do their best to survive, even thrive—against all odds.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
He forbore to attack Lyndon Johnson on Viet Nam in 1968, he said, because he feared that he might jeopardize the fledgling negotiations in Paris.
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
These statesmen forbore going to court in part because they doubted the courts would, or should, be open to them.
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
Out of delicacy, he forbore to tell her that Boots was no longer exactly male.
From "Tiger, Tiger" by Lynne Reid Banks
“Servicers are required to offer deferral of the forborne payments to the end of the loan as the default option,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
He had forborne, hoping others would forbear, and they had not.
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
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
They had forborne to mention this, but it forced itself upon them.
From The Heritage of the Kurts, Volume II (of 2) by Bj?rnstjerne Bj?rnson
Puritan colonists in Massachusetts did the same, fining "whosoever shall be found observing Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way."
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2022
The gregarious, neurotic Sasha has done the inviting, but the bulk of the housekeeping duties will fall on his not always forbearing wife, Masha.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 1, 2021
Mahmoud Ezzedine, a Muslim physician and an endlessly forbearing man of sweet goodness, rapidly becomes the innocent victim of these diplomatic exchanges.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2020
Yet “Pride” powerfully complicates his persona, and hints what should have been obvious all along: that Pride has always been as savvy and knowing as he’s been forbearing.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 22, 2019
They were kind and sweet to Darling; they were forbearing and patient with one another.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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