forgive

verb

/fə(ɹ)ˈɡɪv/UK/fɚˈɡɪv/US

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”)

inherited from *fragebaną✻ — “to give away; give up; release; forgive”
inherited from *frageban✻
inherited from forġiefan — “to forgive, to give”
inherited from foryiven

Definitions

1
To pardon (someone)
To pardon (someone); to waive any negative feeling towards or desire for punishment or retribution against.
- Please forgive me if my phone goes off - I'm expecting an urgent call from my boss.
- Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.
- Forgive us our trespasses.
2
To pardon (something)
To pardon (something); to waive any negative feeling over or retribution for.
- Forgive these wild and wandering cries, ⁠Confusions of a wasted youth; ⁠Forgive them where they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise.
- ... to forgive their crimes.
3
To waive or remit (a debt), to absolve from payment or compensation of.
- Forgive a debt, that is, tell a debtor that a repayment of a loan is no longer needed.
- In several months you’re likely to have a clearer picture on how your state intends to treat your forgiven PPP loan and the deductibility of your business expenses not just for tax year 2020 but also tax year 2021.
›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer
1. 4
  To accord forgiveness.
  - The brave know only how to forgive […] A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.
2. 5
  To look past
  To look past; to look beyond.
  - The music critic loves the instrumentation of the song so much that he can forgive the confusing lyrics.
3. 6
  To redeem
  To redeem; to offset the bad effects of something.
  - Okay, a good hook forgives everything.

The neighborhood

Derived

forgivability, forgivable, forgive and forget, forgive but don't forget, forgiveless, forgive my French, forgiveness, forgiver, forgiving, misforgive, reforgive, unforgive, unforgiver

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at forgive. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

A definitional loop anchored at forgive. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at forgive

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA