forsake
Americanverb (used with object)
-
forsakes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
forsook,
past
-
forsaken,
past participle
-
forsaking
present participle
-
to quit or leave entirely; abandon; desert.
She has forsaken her country for an island in the South Pacific.
-
to give up or renounce (a habit, way of life, etc.).
- Synonyms:
- forgo, relinquish, forswear
verb
-
to abandon
-
to give up (something valued or enjoyed)
Synonym Usage
See desert 2.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
forsakesimple
-
forsakessimple
-
have forsakenperfect
-
has forsakenperfect
-
am forsakingprogressive
-
are forsakingprogressive
-
is forsakingprogressive
-
have been forsakingperfect progressive
-
has been forsakingperfect progressive
Past
-
forsooksimple
-
had forsakenperfect
-
was forsakingprogressive
-
were forsakingprogressive
-
had been forsakingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of forsake
First recorded before 900; Middle English forsaken “to deny, reject,” Old English forsacan, equivalent to for- prefix meaning “away, off” + sacan “to dispute”; see for-
Explanation
To forsake another person is to leave them entirely, usually in a moment of need. Forsake may mean simply giving something up, such as a way of life or a homeland, for something better or more appropriate. But it is often a mean word, suggesting leaving something or someone behind when they need you to stay. One way to remember the meaning of this verb — to abandon or desert — is to remember this little sentence: "For heaven's sake, don't leave me, or heaven is lost!" Lose the heaven, and you have forsake.
Vocabulary lists containing forsake
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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:
“We believe that this was a blessing from God—proof that the Lord does not forsake us.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Even after its massive expenditures, Microsoft recently said its cloud-computing capacity was so constrained that it had to forsake external cloud sales to run its own operations.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
“You don’t have to forsake your life to make great stuff.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2024
Adult men should survive without requiring women to forsake our own goals and desires in order to serve them.
From Salon ● Jan. 3, 2024
But in Moria the burden of Gandalf had been laid on him; and he knew that he could not now forsake the Ring, if Frodo refused in the end to go with Boromir.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
One of these is Charles G. Koch’s 2015 book, “Good Profit,” an example of what happens when a billionaire adopts Alger’s preachy moralizing but forsakes the narrative of mobility that made him compelling.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2022
We agreed to disagree that my favorite Nolan film, “Interstellar,” forsakes emotion for an intricate plot.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 21, 2020
“Coppelia” Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet performs the classic comedic fable about a young man who forsakes his lady-love for a mad doctor’s life-size dancing doll.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2020
Director X’s “Superfly” transplants the 1972 Blaxploitation classic from Harlem streets to suburban Atlanta mansions, flips Curtis Mayfield’s soul score for Future’s hip-hop soundtrack and forsakes the original’s politically charged grit for shallow music-video indulgence.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 12, 2018
There was a dignity to her grief and an acceptance of the fait accompli—the fatalism that the pilot’s wife must beget whenever her mate forsakes her for his aircraft.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
I was part of that generation of Latinos who forsook the Republican Party.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2024
Later, he forsook arts cinema to become a highly bankable commercial actor, as at home in comedy as in drama.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2021
But then, after a single term, she became pregnant and forsook academia.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 24, 2020
And there’s the tale of the team member who forsook us one year to hike the John Muir trail — and was airlifted out after a medical emergency.
From New York Times ● Aug. 24, 2019
This hobby, Mahmoud insisted, was taking them away from their schoolwork, and if they forsook their education for pigeons, he would be stuck with not only the birds but two illiterate sons.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
Now that they’ve forsaken the last obstacle to selling out entirely, they will likely lose many more.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2025
He goes on to say they were "looking forward to a day scampering" and made the decision to leave their packs because they spent two days "lugging them up this God forsaken valley".
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2025
Henley’s current lawyer, Dan Petrocelli, said in an emailed statement that the attorney-client privilege that had previously shielded some of the communications “is a foundational guardrail in our justice system” that should rarely be forsaken.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 6, 2024
An older woman looks at him and straightaway diagnoses his problem: “Have you forsaken your soul?” she asks.
From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2024
Again and again he dreamed of the anguish and the isolation on the forsaken hill.
From "The Giver" by Lois Lowry
"I think Cam is a one-major guy if you go to LIV because you are forsaking your competitiveness for money," Clayton told me in 2023.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2025
Gov. Gavin Newsom forsaking his office to run the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2025
Even more than an internal feeling, truly great art produces new conversations, and this one about how to create without forsaking yourself in the process is only just beginning.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2025
Now, 108 years later, the latest incarnation of that league – the PAC 12 – may be fading into sports history as Washington joins several other universities in forsaking the venerable West Coast athletic collective.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2023
She turns to me, forsaking her view for a moment.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
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.
