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:
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
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
The teaching that God will “never leave or forsake you” is found multiple times in the Bible.
From Salon ● Jan. 12, 2024
“We will not. … San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2023
“You are sure you want to forsake the warm, moist breath of clay for the cold, unforgiving eternity of stone.”
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
So, unlike many athletes, the Rams’ veteran quarterback forsakes headphones upon arrival, and embraces a hostile environment when he jogs onto the field for pregame warmups.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2024
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
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
The scripted sequel is the triumphant homecoming of those who moved on but never forsook their roots.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025
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
Foster Huntington, 32, was a designer for Ralph Lauren before he forsook city life to build a treehouse and a skatepark on land in Washington State, among other adventures.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2020
But then, after a single term, she became pregnant and forsook academia.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 24, 2020
And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.’
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
It’s a fleeting tableau, but it reveals the whole story: even the most forsaken creation reaches for connection the moment he’s given something warm to hold in his hands.
From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2025
Among the indignities a newly vulnerable Mickey suffers, each one spurts out of a stuttering printer and flops to the floor, forsaken.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 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
If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” then surely we are also permitted doubt.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
"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
He said a schism would amount to forsaking the rich spiritual legacy of the UMC in Africa and would severe its valuable international bonds.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024
Crowds gathered on London streets as Gandhi visited the East End, where he called attention to the area’s poor by forsaking a hotel and staying at a community house.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2023
She turns to me, forsaking her view for a moment.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
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