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:
Forsooth this is a shameful custom of a lady, and if I had not a great matter in my hand I should fordo your evil customs.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 2 by Sir Thomas Malory
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 Sir Thomas Malory
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 Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric
Me forthinketh, said King Pellinore, that this shall me betide, but God may fordo well destiny.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Sir Thomas Malory
Juno, Thus hath your ire our lineage all fordo* *undone, ruined Save only me, and wretched Palamon, That Theseus martyreth in prison.
From The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems by D. Laing Purves
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 Sir Thomas Malory
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 Robert Green Ingersoll
His sympathy was ever with the workingman and those who grind fordone at the wheel of labor.
From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05 Little Journeys to the Homes of English Authors by Elbert Hubbard
The ruffled fag fordone with care And brooding, God would ease this pain: Him soothest thou and smoothest down Till some content return again.
From John Marr and Other Poems by Herman Melville
And now the demigod was merely Rudolph Musgrave again, and she was not afraid any longer, but only inexpressibly fordone.
From The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck A Comedy of Limitations by James Branch Cabell
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 John Payne
For there, with bodily anguish keen, With Indian heats at last fordone, With public toil and private teen— Thou sank'st, alone.
From Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold by Matthew Arnold
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.