FORSWEAR (forswore, forsworn)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: forswore    , forsworn   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does forswear mean? 

• FORSWEAR (verb)
  The verb FORSWEAR has 1 sense:

1. formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure

  Familiarity information: FORSWEAR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORSWEAR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they forswear    ... he / she / it forswears   
Past simple: forswore   
Past participle: forsworn   
-ing form: forswearing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

abjure; forswear; recant; resile; retract

Context example:

She abjured her beliefs

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

disown; renounce; repudiate (cast off)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

forswearing (the act of renouncing; sacrificing or giving up or surrendering (a possession or right or title or privilege etc.))

 Context examples 

This experience, with the prayers of his wife, made him forswear the ring for ever, and carry his great muscles into the one trade in which they seemed to give him an advantage.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was made a great favour of; and altogether it was more than I could bear; and so I never would finish it, to have it apologised over as an unfavourable likeness, to every morning visitor in Brunswick Square;—and, as I said, I did then forswear ever drawing any body again.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Hence it follows of necessity, that vast numbers of our people are compelled to seek their livelihood by begging, robbing, stealing, cheating, pimping, flattering, suborning, forswearing, forging, gaming, lying, fawning, hectoring, voting, scribbling, star-gazing, poisoning, whoring, canting, libelling, freethinking, and the like occupations: every one of which terms I was at much pains to make him understand.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)