Definition of forbear
verb (past forbore; past participle forborne)
[no object] literary or formal politely or patiently restrain an impulse to do something; refrain:the boy forbore from touching anything [with infinitive]:he modestly forbears to include his own work [with object] refrain from doing or using (something):Rebecca could not forbear a smile
Do not confuse
forbear with
forebear.
Forbear means 'stop yourself from doing something' (
he doesn’t forbear to write about the bad times), while
forebear (which is also sometimes spelled
forbear) means 'an ancestor' (
our Stone Age forebears).
