forsake
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From Middle English forsaken (“to abandon, desert, repudiate, withdraw allegiance from”), from Old English forsacan (“to oppose; to give up, renounce; to decline, refuse”), from Proto-West Germanic *frasakan (“to forsake, renounce”). By surface analysis, for- + sake.
Cognates include Saterland Frisian ferseeke (“to deny, refuse”), West Frisian fersaakje, Dutch verzaken (“to renounce, forsake”), Middle High German versachen (“to deny”), Danish forsage (“to give up”), Swedish försaka (“to be without, give up”), Norwegian forsake (“to give up, renounce”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌰𐌽 (sakan, “to quarrel; to rebuke”), .
Inflected forms:
form: forsakes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: forsaking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: forsook
pos: verb
tags: past
form: forsaken
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: forsake
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: forsake
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: forsook
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: forsake
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: forsakest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: forsook
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: forsookest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: forsakes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: forsaketh
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: forsook
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: forsake
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: forsook
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: forsake
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: forsook
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: forsake
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: forsaking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: forsaken
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: To abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce (someone or something).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Doeſt thou forſake the deuill and all his workes? / Aunſwere. I forſake them.
Such hazard now muſt doting Tarqvin make, / Pawning his honor to obtaine his luſt, / And for himſelfe, himſelfe he muſt forſake.
Thou lou'd the Church once, and didſt God adore, / But now forſakest him, thou lou'd before.
And about the ninth houre, Jeſus cried with a loud voyce, ſaying, Eli, Eli, lamaſabachthani, that is to ſay, My God, my God, why haſt thou forſaken mee?
He is forſaken of the world, his kinfolk, friends, and acquaintance; his owne members and ſenſes faile him; yea, hee forſaketh (as it were) himſelfe, in that the very vſe of reaſon forſaketh him.
Let Prudence yet obſtruct thy venturous way; / And take good heed, what men will think and ſay: / That beauteous Emma vagrant courſes took; / Her father's houſe and civil life forſook; / That, full of youthful blood, and fond of man; / She to the wood-land with an exile ran.
To ABANDON [...] to forſake utterly, to caſt off; to give up ones ſelf wholly to any prevailing Paſſion or Vice.
That conſcience there performs her proper part, / And writes a doomſday ſentence on his heart; / Forſaking, and forſaken of all friends, / He now perceives where earthly pleaſure ends, [...]
After having opened the flood-gates to free trade, he [William Huskisson] discovered his error; but his nerve forsook him, and he could not close the gates.
There may be nothing noble in renouncing one's country, in abandoning one's home, in forsaking one's people; but is there not something remarkable in this great move one makes?
Do not forsake me, oh my darlin' / You made that promise when we wed / Do not forsake me, oh my darlin' / Although you're grievin', I can't be leavin' / Until I shoot Frank Miller dead
After the junction at Saincaize the line forsakes the Loire, which it has followed for many miles, for its great tributary the Allier, and runs through St. Germain-des-Fossés, the junction for St. Etienne, and Vichy to Clermont Ferrand.
Stan: You've got to fight, Jesus. / Jesus: Why, what's the point? No one believes in me. Everyone put their money on Satan. My father forsaked^([sic]) me, the town forsaked^([sic]) me. I'm completely forsook.^([sic])
Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can't quite get there 'cause my heart's forsaken me
But whence comes this strange feeling of duty, which goads exceptional individuals to antagonize their neighbors, forsake peace of mind and bodily comfort, jeopardize their fortunes and their lives—to risk, in short, all those advantages which the careful observance of conventional duties would place more securely in their grasp, by strengthening their position in the social order?
Saying he wanted to "speak directly to the people of Haiti," Mr. [Barack] Obama gave a brief address from the White House that was one of the sharpest displays of emotion of his presidency. "You will not be forsaken. You will not be forgotten," he said, and stopped to compose himself. "In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you."
gloss: To decline or refuse (something offered).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: The youthful Bull muſt wander in the Wood; / Behind the Mountain, or beyond the Flood: / [...] / With two fair Eyes his Miſtreſs burns his Breaſt; / He looks and languiſhes, and leaves his Reſt; / Forſakes his Food, and pining for the Laſs, / Is joyleſs of the Grove, and ſpurns the growing Graſs.
gloss: To avoid or shun (someone or something).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: This was that Pascall lambe [i.e., Jesus] whose loue for vs so stood, / That on the mount of Caluerie, for vs did shed his blood: / Where hanging on the Crosse, no shame he did forsake, / Till death giuen him by pearcing speare, an ende of life did make.
gloss: To cause disappointment to; to be insufficient for (someone or something).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Theſe birds, on the continent of America, continue to flutter the year round; as their food, which is the honey of flowers, never forſakes them in thoſe warm latitudes where they are found.
Derived words: forsaken
forsakenly
forsakenness
forsaker
forsaking
godforsaken
godforsakenly
godforsakenness
unforsaken
Translations: