forbid
Americanverb (used with object)
-
forbids,
present (3rd person singular)
-
forbade,
past participle, past
-
forbid,
past participle, past
-
forbad,
past (Archaic)
-
forbidden,
past participle
-
forbidding
present participle
-
to command (a person) not to do something, have something, etc., or not to enter some place.
She forbade him entry to the house.
- Synonyms:
- interdict
-
to prohibit (something); make a rule or law against.
to forbid the use of lipstick; to forbid smoking.
- Synonyms:
- interdict
-
to hinder or prevent; make impossible.
-
to exclude; bar.
Burlesque is forbidden in many cities.
verb
-
to prohibit (a person) in a forceful or authoritative manner (from doing something or having something)
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to make impossible; hinder
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to shut out or exclude
-
may it not happen
Synonym Usage
Forbid, inhibit, prohibit, taboo indicate a command to refrain from some action. Forbid, a common and familiar word, usually denotes a direct or personal command of this sort: I forbid you to go. It was useless to forbid children to play in the park. Inhibit implies a checking or hindering of impulses by the mind, sometimes involuntarily: to inhibit one's desires; His responsiveness was inhibited by extreme shyness. Prohibit, a formal or legal word, means usually to forbid by official edict, enactment, or the like: to prohibit the sale of liquor. Taboo, primarily associated with primitive superstition, means to prohibit by common disapproval and by social custom: to taboo a subject in polite conversation.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
forbidsimple
-
forbidssimple
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have forbadeperfect
-
have forbidperfect
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have forbiddenperfect
-
has forbadeperfect
-
has forbidperfect
-
has forbiddenperfect
-
am forbiddingprogressive
-
are forbiddingprogressive
-
is forbiddingprogressive
-
have been forbiddingperfect progressive
-
has been forbiddingperfect progressive
Past
-
forbadsimple
-
forbadesimple
-
forbidsimple
-
had forbadeperfect
-
had forbidperfect
-
had forbiddenperfect
-
was forbiddingprogressive
-
were forbiddingprogressive
-
had been forbiddingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of forbid
First recorded before 1000; Middle English forbeden, Old English forbēodan. See for-, bid 1
Explanation
When you forbid something, you refuse to allow it. You might have heard your parents say things like, "I forbid you to play ball in the house!" or "I forbid you to have any more parties when we're not home!" Forbid comes from the Old English word forbeodan, meaning "forbid, prohibit." Forbid can also mean "prevent" or "keep from happening." The spare tire on your car will forbid you from driving any faster than 40 miles an hour — any faster and the car will shake. You may have heard forbid used in the expression "God forbid . . ." This refers to something you hope will not happen, so much so that you're asking God for a little help.
Vocabulary lists containing forbid
Beowulf vocabulary
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 1
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"Names/Nombres" by Julia Alvarez
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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:
Nature's journals forbid AI-generated images and tell referees never to upload a manuscript into an AI system.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
"Sometimes a ban makes things worse. Protesting is a right -- it's like with children, when you forbid something, it becomes even more tempting," one employee remarked to AFP.
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026
But each time a home is lost, or, God forbid, a loved one, it wears down even the most hardened Malibu resident a little bit more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
That’s not your total return because it doesn’t include appreciation — or, heaven forbid, depreciation — of your home.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
They overwhelmed him, not with fear—or, gods forbid, disgust—but with awe, and a prickle of dread.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
It also broadly forbids these companies from misleading or deceiving customers and prohibits confidentiality agreements.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
He cited the Administrative Procedure Act, which forbids abrupt and “arbitrary” changes in federal regulations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
But she is trapped by a K-pop system that forbids her from drinking alcohol and having adult relationships.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
"There is a regulatory vacuum because Article 4 of the 1967 treaty only forbids weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons in orbit," said space law expert Laetitia Cesari.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
Therefore the Supernatural World Congress forbids the Bureau from ever seeking out the key.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
The Meyer decision, for example, overturned a Nebraska law which forbad teaching non-English languages in public and private schools.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2022
The council of the Bernese government resolved to recall the refractory clergy of the Jura, took their names off the civil register and forbad them to exercise any clerical functions.
From Church History, Vol. 3 of 3 by J. H. Kurtz
Honour forbad her to take advantage of this ignorance; but the struggle threw her into agonies of grief.
From Ghosts and Family Legends A Volume for Christmas by Catherine Crowe
In the seventeenth they forbad her all worldly songs; as to religious songs, she abstains from them much more easily.
From Priests, Women, and Families by Jules Michelet
Prudence forbad him to approve, we are told, what kindness would not suffer him to prohibit.
From Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Addressed to a Lady by Hester Chapone
Offended and upset, some fans demanded an apology - but the band's record label, forbade the members from issuing a statement.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
Yet he is so bad at ABS challenges that manager Dave Roberts forbade Pages from challenging pitches after his unsuccessful challenge in the NL Division Series opener Monday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The reason for the separation between the businesses, Corley added, had to do with a defunct local law that forbade the two establishments existing under one umbrella.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
That’s because the rule never forbade criticism of the SEC, but only a defendant’s attempt to deny the allegations or facts in a settlement that it “neither admitted nor denied.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
Nepotism laws forbade her from teaching in one of Hampton’s public Negro elementary schools, since the school system already employed two of her sisters.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
Paul Mackenzie said education was forbidden and modern medicine was "evil"
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026
Gender segregation is standard practice for many Orthodox Jews but is forbidden in public places by the government of socially liberal Tel Aviv.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
He said his parents were deeply religious and so strict that even simple pleasures such as singing were forbidden.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
I was somewhat uncomfortable with this practice, and Heritage found it embarrassing enough that my boss there once told me I was forbidden to mention “ghostwriting” on my résumé.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
People who ate their totems lost their teeth or went blind or became sterile or occasionally turned into the forbidden animal.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Diehards might find fault with something or other, but, to quote the author, you’d have to possess a “most forbidding, disagreeable countenance” not to be charmed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Well, it's not exactly Mariah Carey demanding baskets of puppies and forbidding eye contact, but Imbruglia was shaken up.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
If your niece’s mother lives there rent-free, the trustee should be comfortable that doing so benefits your niece and there should be no rules forbidding it.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
The rules linking a sequence to a finished organism—biology’s “generative grammar”—remain, he acknowledges, a forbidding problem that may never fully yield.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
The old man's expression was no longer quite so forbidding as he inspected Mo. “How extraordinary. You must be really keen on the book,” he murmured.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
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