Dictionaries › English

forbid

Pronunciation: /fəˈbɪd/

The English word “forbid” has 5 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To disallow; to proscribe.
  2. To deny, exclude from, or warn off, by express command.
  3. To oppose, hinder, or prevent, as if by an effectual command.
  4. To accurse; to blast.
  5. To defy; to challenge.

Etymology

From Middle English forbeden, from Old English forbēodan (“to forbid, prohibit, restrain, refuse, repeal, annul”), from Proto-Germanic *furibeudaną, from *furi + *beudaną. Equivalent to for- (“from, away”) + bid (“to offer, proclaim”). Cognate with Dutch verbieden (“to forbid”), German verbieten (“to forbid”), Danish forbyde (“to forbid”), Norwegian Bokmål forby (“to forbid”), Swedish förbjuda…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “forbid” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.