forsake
Verb
Verb Forms: forsook, forsaken, forsaking, forsakes
- To quit or leave entirely; abandon.
- leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
- To abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce (someone or something).
- To decline or refuse (something offered).
- To avoid or shun (someone or something).
- To cause disappointment to; to be insufficient for (someone or something).
Examples
- Never forsake a good Q-hook; those high points are hard to come by in Scrabble.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English forsaken (“to abandon, desert, repudiate, withdraw allegiance from; to deny, reject, shun; to betray; to divorce (a spouse); to disown; to be false to (one's nature, vows, etc.); to give up, renounce, surrender; to discard; to omit; to decline, refuse, reject; to avoid, escape; to cease, desist; to evade, neglect; to contradict, refute; to depart, leave; to become detached, separate”) [and other forms], from Old English forsacan (“to oppose; to give up, renounce; to decline, refuse”), from Proto-West Germanic *frasakan (“to forsake, renounce”), from Proto-Germanic *fra- (prefix meaning ‘away, off’) + *sakaną (“to charge; to dispute”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to seek out”)). The English word can be analysed as for- + sake, and is cognate with 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”), .
Scrabble Score: 14
forsake: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordforsake: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
forsake: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary