Library / English Dictionary

FORBEAR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: forbore    , forborne   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person from whom you are descended

Synonyms:

forbear; forebear

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("forbear" is a kind of...):

ancestor; antecedent; ascendant; ascendent; root (someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "forbear"):

grandparent (a parent of your father or mother)

great grandparent (a parent of your grandparent)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resist doing something

Example:

she could not forbear weeping

Synonyms:

forbear; refrain

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "forbear"):

leave; leave alone; leave behind; let alone (leave unchanged or undisturbed or refrain from taking)

let it go (not act)

abstain (refrain from voting)

save; spare (refrain from harming)

forbear; hold back (refrain from doing)

help; help oneself (abstain from doing; always used with a negative)

stand by (not act or do anything)

sit out (not participate in (an activity, such as a dance or a sports event))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

forbearance (a delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges; refraining from acting)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Refrain from doing

Example:

she forbore a snicker

Synonyms:

forbear; hold back

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "forbear" is one way to...):

forbear; refrain (resist doing something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

Her prudent mother, occupied by the same ideas, forbore to invite him to sit by herself.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It was the cherished belief of each that he did more than his share of the work, and neither forbore to speak this belief at every opportunity.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

There were three minnows in the pool, which was too large to drain; and after several ineffectual attempts to catch them in the tin bucket he forbore.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Her hand was on the bell, but she had forborne to ring it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Though he followed her, he was still dubious, and he could not forbear an occasional halt in order more carefully to study the warning.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Her uncle's kind expressions, however, and forbearing manner, were sensibly felt; and when she considered how much of the truth was unknown to him, she believed she had no right to wonder at the line of conduct he pursued.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

To Catherine's simple feelings, this odd sort of reserve seemed neither kindly meant, nor consistently supported; and its unkindness she would hardly have forborne pointing out, had its inconsistency been less their friend; but Anne and Maria soon set her heart at ease by the sagacity of their I know what; and the evening was spent in a sort of war of wit, a display of family ingenuity, on one side in the mystery of an affected secret, on the other of undefined discovery, all equally acute.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Don't you feel that it is pleasanter to help one another, to have daily duties which make leisure sweet when it comes, and to bear and forbear, that home may be comfortable and lovely to us all?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The evening wind made such a disturbance just now, among some tall old elm-trees at the bottom of the garden, that neither my mother nor Miss Betsey could forbear glancing that way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I could see Maud’s solicitude again growing, though she timidly—and even proudly, I think—forbore a repetition of her request.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)