FORBID Definition & Meaning

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forbid

[ fer-bid, fawr- ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

verb (used with object)

forbade or forbad or forbid, forbidden or forbid, forbidding.

to command (a person) not to do something, have something, etc., or not to enter some place:
She forbade him entry to the house.
Synonyms:
to prohibit (something); make a rule or law against:
to forbid the use of lipstick; to forbid smoking.
Synonyms:
to hinder or prevent; make impossible.
Synonyms: , , ,
to exclude; bar:
Burlesque is forbidden in many cities.

forbid

/ ��əˈ��ɪ�� /

verb

to prohibit (a person) in a forceful or authoritative manner (from doing something or having something)
to make impossible; hinder
to shut out or exclude
God forbid!
may it not happen

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Derived Forms

�ڴǰ�ˈ��, noun
�ڴǰ�ˈ��岹�Գ��, noun

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Other 51�Թ� Forms

�ڴǰ�·��d�� noun

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of forbid¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English forbeden, Old English �ڴǰ��ŧ�ǻ岹��. See for-, bid ¹

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of forbid¹

Old English �ڴǰ��ŧ�ǻ岹�� ; related to Old High German farbiotan , Gothic faurbiudan ; see for- , bid

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Idioms and Phrases

see god forbid .

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Synonym Study

Forbid, inhibit, prohibit, taboo indicate a command to refrain from some action. Forbid, a common and familiar word, usually denotes a direct or personal command of this sort: I forbid you to go. It was useless to forbid children to play in the park. Inhibit implies a checking or hindering of impulses by the mind, sometimes involuntarily: to inhibit one's desires; His responsiveness was inhibited by extreme shyness. Prohibit, a formal or legal word, means usually to forbid by official edict, enactment, or the like: to prohibit the sale of liquor. Taboo, primarily associated with primitive superstition, means to prohibit by common disapproval and by social custom: to taboo a subject in polite conversation.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Last year, while Republicans were trying to de-gay the flagpoles of our embassies, the world also learned that Russia’s Supreme Court declared the rainbow flag was forbidden in its country.

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Bonta’s suit relied on the Administrative Procedure Act, which forbids agencies from abruptly changing their regulatory policies without a clear and reasonable explanation.

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A Thai court has issued an arrest warrant for an American academic under Thailand's lese-majeste law that forbids insulting the monarchy.

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Last year, she told KNX News that the law — which forbids city employees and resources from being involved in federal immigration enforcement — “was really just an act of symbolic resistance” that could jeopardize federal funding.

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Soleimanpour wrote the play after he was forbidden to leave his country for refusing military service.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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