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forbear

A forbear is an ancestor or any person you are descended from, like your grandfather or your great, great, great, great grandfather.

The verb bear means to bring forth, as in to bear children. As a noun, forbear refers to a person that came before you. Your forbear can be someone you’ve known, but it can also refer to someone who came generations before you. As a verb, to forbear means to resist doing something or resist bringing it forth. You might forbear having children if you had thought your forbearers were cursed in some way.

DEFINITIONS OF: forbear

n a person from whom you are descended

Synonyms:: forebear

Types:: show 6 types...; hide 6 types...; grandparent
a parent of your father or mother; great grandparent
a parent of your grandparent; gramps, grandad, granddad, granddaddy, grandfather, grandpa
the father of your father or mother; gran, grandma, grandmother, grannie, granny, nan, nanna
the mother of your father or mother; great grandmother
a mother of your grandparent; great grandfather
a father of your grandparent

Type of:: ancestor, antecedent, ascendant, ascendent, root
someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

v refrain from doing

“she forbore a snicker”

Synonyms:: hold back

Type of:: refrain
resist doing something

v resist doing something

“she could not forbear weeping”

Synonyms:: refrain

Antonyms:: act, move
perform an action, or work out or perform (an action)

Types:: show 10 types...; hide 10 types...; leave, leave alone, leave behind
leave unchanged or undisturbed or refrain from taking; let it go
not act; abstain
refrain from voting; save, spare
refrain from harming; hold back
refrain from doing; help, help oneself
abstain from doing; always used with a negative; stand by
not act or do anything; sit out
not participate in (an activity, such as a dance or a sports event); let
leave unchanged; favor, favour
treat gently or carefully

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