Forbear

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /fɔːˈbɛə/
• US IPA: /fɔɹˈbɛɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(r)

From Middle English forberen, from Old English forberan ("to forbear, abstain from, refrain; suffer, endure, tolerate, humor; restrain; do without"), from Proto-Germanic *fraberaną ("to hold back, endure"), equivalent to - + bear. Cognate with Old Frisian forbera ("to forfeit"), Middle High German verbërn ("to have not; abstain; refrain from; avoid"), Gothic (frabairan, "to endure").

Full definition of forbear

Verb

1. (transitive) To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.
2. (intransitive) To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.
• Bible, 1 Kings xxii. 6Shall I go ... to battle, or shall I forbear?
3. (intransitive) To refuse; to decline; to give no heed.
• Bible, Ezekiel ii. 7Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
4. (intransitive) To control oneself when provoked.
• CowperThe kindest and the happiest pair
  Will find occasion to forbear.
• Old proverbBoth bear and forbear.

Related terms

• forbearance
• forbearant

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈfɔː.bɛə/
• US IPA: /ˈfɔɹ.bɛɹ/

Noun

1. Alternative spelling of forebear
• 1906 2004, Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville, Ethel Wedgwood tr.Sirs, I am quite sure that the King of England's forbears rightly and justly lost the conquered lands that I hold ...
• 1936 2004, Raymond William Firth, We the Tikopia http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=Eiji-EnuhXUC&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&sig=aB2VV0fcWv6lkQPQatQQbDhlm_8One does not take one’s family name therefrom, and again the position of the mother in that group is determined through her father and his male forbears in turn; this too is a patrilineal group.
• 1997, H. L. Hix, Understanding W. S. Merwin http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=8JIveUt8StQC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&sig=_AETFoZUYlti38_Va0zOHD4yZTkBeginning with the bald declaration “I think I was cold in the womb,” the speaker in “The Forbears” then decides that his brother (who died soon after birth) must also have been cold in the womb, like his grandfather John and the forbears who antedated John: