fordo
Americanverb (used with object)
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to do away with; kill; destroy.
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to ruin; undo.
verb
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to destroy
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to exhaust
Etymology
Origin of fordo
before 900; Middle English fordon, Old English fordōn ( see fore-, do 1); cognate with Dutch verdoen, Old High German fartuon
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:
Full she drad that God the Wreaker all mankind would fordo with water for his evil sins.
From Ulysses by Joyce, James
Me forthinketh, said King Pellinore, that this shall me betide, but God may fordo well destiny.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir
So benevolent is God to mankind, that he has set his angels over us as guardians, that they may not allow the fierce devils to fordo us.
From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Aelfric, Abbot of Eynsham
This eventful day, which, to quote Iago, was either to "make or fordo quite" the widow, found her as calm, cool and deliberate in the execution of her purpose as the Ancient himself.
From A Book of Remarkable Criminals by Irving, Henry Brodribb
And then all they that longed to the castle came to him, and did him homage and fealty, praying him that he would abide there still a little while to fordo that foul custom.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir
Him longing fordid To wot whether the bold man he quick there shall meet In that mead-stead, e'en he the king of the Weders, All sick of his might, whereas he erst Itft him.
From The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats by Anonymous
Also Merlin let make there a bed, that there should never man lie therein but he went out of his wit, yet Launcelot de Lake fordid that bed through his noblesse.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir
And yet they are talking about our fathers being such good men, while they are cursing us fordoing precisely what they did, only to a less extent than they did.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 8 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Political by Ingersoll, Robert Green
Thy people, O self-deluder, thou'lt leave in mourning for thee; Ay, all their lives they shall sorrow for thee, fordone and slain.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume II by Payne, John
So there he lay asleep, the steadfast goodly Odysseus, fordone with toil and drowsiness.
From The Odyssey Done into English prose by Lang, Andrew
He came across them as they fared slowly down the bent, looking weary and fordone.
From The Sundering Flood by Morris, May
The way is long, and when he returns in the morning he looks fordone with weariness.
From Some Chinese Ghosts by Hearn, Lafcadio
He moaned again, but so hopelessly, as being so weary and fordone, that Abbot Milo began to blubber out loud.
From The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay by Hewlett, Maurice Henry
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.
