Definition of "forbear" in English

verb

1. (transitive) To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from.

2. (intransitive) To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.

3. (intransitive) To refuse; to decline; to withsay; to unheed.

4. (intransitive) To control oneself when provoked.

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 …
   • One 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.