FORGIVE (forgave, forgiven)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: forgave    , forgiven   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does forgive mean? 

• FORGIVE (verb)
  The verb FORGIVE has 2 senses:

1. stop blaming or grant forgiveness

2. absolve from payment

  Familiarity information: FORGIVE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORGIVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they forgive    ... he / she / it forgives   
Past simple: forgave   
Past participle: forgiven   
-ing form: forgiving   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stop blaming or grant forgiveness

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

She cannot forgive him for forgetting her birthday

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

concede; grant; yield (be willing to concede)

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

condone; excuse (excuse, overlook, or make allowances for; be lenient with)

absolve; free (let off the hook)

absolve; shrive (grant remission of a sin to)

remit (forgive)

pardon (grant a pardon to)

excuse; pardon (accept an excuse for)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody something

Derivation:

forgiver (a person who pardons or forgives or excuses a fault or offense)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Absolve from payment

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

I forgive you your debt

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

exempt; free; relieve (grant relief or an exemption from a rule or requirement to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody something

 Context examples 

"If you tell Laurie, I'll never forgive you! She mustn't, must she, Mother?" said Meg, looking distressed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Somehow it was not so difficult to forgive him anything.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

‘I am sorry that I broke my promise, Jack,’ said she; ‘but if you knew all the circumstances I am sure that you would forgive me.’

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

The sly devil—God forgive me that I should speak of him so, now that he is dead!

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

Reader, I forgave him at the moment and on the spot.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He laid his hand on my arm, and said:—Friend John, forgive me if I pain.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He'd never forgive me for leaving such unexhausted copy behind me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I—God forgive me—I thought YOU had.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Leach had evidently done his task with a thoroughness that Mugridge had not forgiven, for words followed and evil names involving smirched ancestries.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There is nothing to forgive, Theresa. I really should thank you.

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