forgive
Verb
Verb Forms: forgave, forgiven, forgiving, forgives
- To stop feeling angry or resentful towards someone for an offense.
- stop blaming or grant forgiveness
- "She cannot forgive him for forgetting her birthday"
- absolve from payment
- "I forgive you your debt"
- To pardon (someone); to waive any negative feeling towards or desire for punishment or retribution against.
- To pardon for (something); to waive any negative feeling over or retribution for.
- To waive or remit (a debt), to absolve from payment or compensation of.
- To accord forgiveness.
- To look past; to look beyond.
- To redeem; to offset the bad effects of something.
Examples
- Forgive a debt, that is, tell a debtor that a repayment of a loan is no longer needed.
- Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.
- Forgive us our trespasses.
- I could never FORGIVE myself for missing that triple-word bingo on a wide-open board.
- Please forgive me if my phone goes off - I'm expecting an urgent call from my boss.
- The music critic loves the instrumentation of the song so much that he can forgive the confusing lyrics.
Origin / Etymology
Alteration (due to give) of Middle English foryiven, forȝiven, from Old English forġiefan (“to forgive, to give”), from Proto-West Germanic *frageban, from Proto-Germanic *fragebaną (“to give away; give up; release; forgive”), equivalent to for- + give (etymologically for- + yive). Cognate with Scots forgeve, forgif, forgie (“to forgive”), West Frisian ferjaan (“to forgive”), Dutch vergeven (“to forgive”), German vergeben (“to forgive”), Icelandic fyrirgefa (“to forgive”), Yiddish פֿאַרגעבן (fargebn, “to forgive”)
Scrabble Score: 14
forgive: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordforgive: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
forgive: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary