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Bequeath vs Forbear - What's the difference?

bequeath | forbear | Related terms |

Bequeath is a related term of forbear.


As verbs the difference between bequeath and forbear

is that bequeath is (legal) to give or leave by will; to give by testament while forbear is to keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.

As a noun forbear is

.

bequeath

English

Verb

  • (legal) To give or leave by will; to give by testament.
  • To hand down; to transmit.
  • To give; to offer; to commit.

    • Usage notes

    * (give or leave by will) The verb is usually used of personal property; for real property, the term devise is preferred.

    Related terms

    * quethe * quoth * bequest

    forbear

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) forberen, from (etyl) . (got)

    Verb

  • To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.
  • To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.
  • * Bible, 1 Kings xxii. 6
    • Shall I go to battle, or shall I forbear ?
  • To refuse; to decline; to give no heed.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel ii. 7
    • Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear .
  • To control oneself when provoked.
  • * Cowper
    • The kindest and the happiest pair / Will find occasion to forbear .
  • * Old proverb
    • Both bear and forbear .
    Related terms
    * forbearance * forbearant

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * [1906] 2004, Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville, Ethel Wedgwood tr.
    • Sirs, I am quite sure that the King of England's forbears rightly and justly lost the conquered lands that I hold [...]
  • * [1936] 2004, Raymond William Firth, We the Tikopia [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=Eiji-EnuhXUC&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&sig=aB2VV0fcWv6lkQPQatQQbDhlm_8]
    • One does not take one’s family name therefrom, and again the position of the mother in that group is determined through her father and his male forbears in turn; this too is a patrilineal group.
  • * 1997, H. L. Hix, Understanding W. S. Merwin [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=8JIveUt8StQC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&sig=_AETFoZUYlti38_Va0zOHD4yZTk]
    • Beginning with the bald declaration “I think I was cold in the womb,” the speaker in “The Forbears'” then decides that his brother (who died soon after birth) must also have been cold in the womb, like his grandfather John and the ' forbears who antedated John:
    English heteronyms