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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

forbid.

To disallow; to proscribe.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/fəˈbɪd/Received-Pronunciation[fəˈbɪd]Received-Pronunciation/fɚˈbɪd/General-American[fɚˈbɪd] ~ [fɹ̩ˈbɪd]General-American
  1. To disallow; to proscribe.

    transitive
    Smoking in the restaurant is forbidden.
  2. To deny, exclude from, or warn off, by express command.

    ditransitive
  3. To oppose, hinder, or prevent, as if by an effectual command.

    transitive
    An impassable river forbids the approach of the army.
  4. To accurse; to blast.

    obsolete · transitive
  5. To defy; to challenge.

    obsolete · transitive
    What part of "no" do you forbid to understand?
Where this word comes from

From Middle English forbeden, from Old English forbēodan (“to forbid, prohibit, restrain, refuse, repeal, annul”), from Proto-Germanic *furibeudaną, from *furi + *beudaną. Equivalent to for- (“from, away”) + bid (“to offer, proclaim”). Cognate with Dutch verbieden (“to forbid”), German verbieten (“to forbid”), Danish forbyde (“to forbid”), Norwegian Bokmål forby (“to forbid”), Swedish förbjuda (“to forbid”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌱𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (faurbiudan). Related to forbode.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.