put forth
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: puts forth
form: putting forth
form: put forth
form: put forth
Senses: examples: text: to put forth an effort
text: Now, Marcus, now, thy Virtue’s on the Proof: / Put forth thy utmost Strength, work ev’ry Nerve, / And call up all thy Father in thy Soul:
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 3:
text: “Oh! when a gallant young man, like Mr. Frank Churchill,” said Mr. Knightley dryly, “writes to a fair lady like Miss Woodhouse, he will, of course, put forth his best.”
ref: 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 16, in Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
text: He could not move as quickly as most men, but he put forth his utmost speed.
ref: 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 8, in Ruth:
text: But his actor’s need to be liked was stronger than his resentment, and he was putting forth all his charm in an effort to win over this so-unexpected antagonist.
ref: 1950, Josephine Tey, chapter 4, in To Love and Be Wise, New York: Pocket Book, published 1977, page 36:
glosses: To give or supply; to make or create (implies trying or striving).
examples: text: Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: […] he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb […]
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 14:27:
text: Put forth, put forth that warme balme-breathing thigh,
Which when next time you in these sheets wil smother
There it must meet another,
Which never was, but must be, oft, more nigh;
ref: 1613, John Donne, “Epithalamion made at Lincolnes Inne”, in Poems, London: John Marriot, published 1633, page 135:
text: With his broad Sabre next, a Chief in Years, / The hoary Majesty of Spades appears; / Puts forth one manly Leg, to sight reveal’d; / The rest his many-colour’d Robe conceal’d.
ref: 1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, canto 3, page 22:
glosses: To extend forward (a body part or something held).
examples: text: They put forth queſtions of Aſtrologie, / VVhich Fauſtus anſwerd with ſuch learned ſkill, / As they admirde and wondred at his wit.
ref: 1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signatures D2, verso – D3, recto:
text: Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 13:24:
text: So far as one can ascertain from the conflicting accounts that have been put forth, the majority of them remained busied with preparations […]
ref: 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 1, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book I (The Coming of the Martians), page 15:
text: By the fifteenth the season was in full blast, Opera and theatres were putting forth their new attractions, dinner-engagements were accumulating, and dates for dances being fixed.
ref: 1920, Edith Wharton, chapter 26, in The Age of Innocence, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: In its present form, the social order depends for its continued existence on the acceptance, without too many embarrassing questions, of the propaganda put forth by those in authority and the propaganda hallowed by the local traditions.
ref: 1958, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, New York: Harper & Bros., c. 1962, Chapter 11:
text: It survived the overreach of progress once before, escaping demolition and rebuilding in the 1970s. That survival was a triumph against the "stridently modernist" plans then put forth.
ref: 2025 February 5, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railway heritage saved in 2024”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 53, about Liverpool Street station in London:
glosses: To advance, offer, propose (often verbally).
examples: text: […] they begot no children vntill they were put forth of Paradise […]
ref: 1610, John Healey, transl., St. Augustine, Of the Citie of God, London: George Eld, Book 14, Chapter 21, p. 524:
text: Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 5:34:
glosses: To send (someone) out, remove (someone) from a place.
examples: text: For inward light alas / Puts forth no visual beam.
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 17:
text: […] now the Moon beginning to put forth her Silver Light, as the Poets call it (tho’ she looked at that Time more like a Piece of Copper) Jones called for his Reckoning […]
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 6, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XII, page 367:
text: And, as before, it shone without dismay;
Albeit putting forth a fainter light.
ref: 1807, William Wordsworth, Untitled poem in Poems, in Two Volumes, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, Volume 1, p. 66, Upon a leaf the Glow-worm did I lay, To bear it with me through the stormy night
text: Thou perceivest the Flowers put forth their precious Odours,
And none can tell how from so small a center comes such sweet,
ref: c. 1811, William Blake, edited by E.R.D. Maclagan and A.G.B. Russell, Milton: A Poem in Two Books, London: A. H. Bullen, published 1907, Book Two, p. 34:
glosses: To emit, send out, give off (light, odour, etc.).
examples: text: […] her hedges even-pleach’d, / Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair, / Put forth disorder’d twigs;
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
text: […] [t]ake from vnder Walls, or the like, where Nettles put forth in abundance, the Earth which you shall there finde […]
ref: 1631, Francis [Bacon], “VI. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, page 137:
text: Soon the beech trees had put forth their delicate, transparent leaves.
ref: 1950, C. S. Lewis, chapter 11, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, New York: Macmillan:
glosses: To grow, shoot, bud, or germinate.
examples: text: […] order for sea is given; / They have put forth the haven [—] / Where their appointment we may best discover, / And look on their endeavour.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene x]:
text: And where but from Nantucket, too, did that first adventurous little sloop put forth, partly laden with imported cobblestones—so goes the story—to throw at the whales, in order to discover when they were nigh enough to risk a harpoon from the bowsprit?
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
glosses: (of a ship) To leave (a port or haven).
Related terms: put forward
put out
put up