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:
But Iran's governing football body has accused Australia of kidnapping the players and forcing them to forsake their home nation against their will.
From Barron's ● Mar. 14, 2026
I can’t be the only 57-year-old who would forsake both for six uninterrupted hours.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
Adult men should survive without requiring women to forsake our own goals and desires in order to serve them.
From Salon ● Jan. 3, 2024
"Beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend," Musk wrote.
From Reuters ● Jul. 30, 2023
But choosing a different faction means I forsake my family.
From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth
A dapper dresser, he forsakes his closet for T-shirts and baggy jeans.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
We agreed to disagree that my favorite Nolan film, “Interstellar,” forsakes emotion for an intricate plot.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 21, 2020
With his wife, a Scottish doctor treats impoverished Welsh miners for TB but, dispirited, forsakes them for London’s rich.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 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
Instead, Latinos forsook movement politics in this election and seem poised to do the same in the future.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 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
And for thee I hungered and forsook my bed.
From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
Anguished and alone, Nick is similarly cast away, seemingly cursed to spend the rest of his days forsaken in his hometown, now a foreign land.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
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
During the years when Tres Marias had been abandoned, Pedro Segundo had naturally assumed command of the small tribe that had survived in these forsaken lands.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
"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
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
Finally, she is forced to choose between forsaking her sense of safety and success and risking it all to embrace her truth.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 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.
