English
forebear
Noun

forebear (plural forebears)

  1. An ancestor.
    • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 566:
      One day, among the days, he bethought him of this and fell lamenting for that the most part of his existence was past and he had not been vouchsafed a son, to inherit the kingdom after him, even as he had inherited it from his fathers and forebears; by reason whereof there betided him sore cark and care and chagrin exceeding.
    • [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 […]
    • [1936] 2004, Raymond William Firth, We the Tikopia
      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.
Antonyms Translations Verb

forebear (forebears, present participle forebearing; past forebore, past participle foreborne)

  1. Obsolete spelling of forbear#English|forbear


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